Paul Blart: Mall Cop is a 2009 American action comedy film starring Kevin James, Keir O'Donnell, and Jayma Mays. It was released on January 16, 2009, in the United States by Columbia Pictures.
Plot
The film begins at the New Jersey police department training facility where new recruits are being tested. The chief tells the new recruits that they have all passed the written exam, but must complete the obstacle course to become an official New Jersey police officer. Paul Blart (Kevin James) is able to complete the course, but passes out at the end.
At home, Blart has dinner with his mom (Shirley Knight) and daughter Maya (Raini Rodriguez), who both try to cheer him up. Blart has hypoglycemia, which means that he will pass out if his body runs low on sugar. Blart's mom wants him to start seeing someone again, but he explains that Black Friday is coming and he will be very busy. Blart is very serious about his security job and focuses entirely on that, but his daughter wears him down and convinces him to get on an online matchmaking service. Blart's ex-wife had married him for the green card, had a daughter with him, and then abandoned them.
At the mall, Blart is on patrol, keeping the peace and helping the shoppers find what they're looking for. Blart is good at his job, but not entirely happy. As he patrols, he passes by a little shop-kiosk and the owner, Amy (Jayma Mays) gives Blart a warm smile. Blart is obviously enchanted, and is distracted enough to run face-first into a parked in-mall display car.
As they patrol, Blart asks Sims why he pursued Mall Security. Sims replies telling him that this was the only job he could get because he never finished high school. Blart tells Sims that he's training to become a state trooper, but is 0-8 in his attempts.
That night, Blart shows up at the bar and Amy seems glad to see him, but Stuart comes in and tries to make him look bad. It is evident that Amy is disgusted by Stuart's behavior and walks off. Stuart continues to make fun of Blart's job and generally acts like he is much better than Blart until Veck shows up to support Blart; Stuart walks off.
Blart settles in for some food with his coworkers, and Vijay (Erick Avari) judges a nacho eating contest between Blart and Leon (Jamal Mixon). Blart accidentally eats a pepper and grabs a pitcher of lemonade from Veck and drinks half of it, only to realize that its a margarita. This causes Blart (who never drinks) to get drunk. Blart stumbles around and makes a fool of himself in front of Amy and scares her off. He then proceeds to do a one man mosh-pit on the dance floor, knocks over the band, and throws himself through the bar's glass window.
At the service entrances in the back of the mall, a group of men prepare to break into the mall, Die Hard style (locking down the mall).
At the bank, Amy, Stuart, and Veck are there to cash in their paychecks and Stuart takes the chance to further hit on Amy. Blart is heading to the bank as well, but the man who runs the arcade asks Blart to help him close up shop.
The criminals are now in place all over the mall. At the arcade, Blart decides to play Rock Band to cheer himself up. Outside the arcade, the robbers have begun evacuating the store, causing much panic which Blart does not hear because of the video game's loud music.
The robbers quickly subdue the other security guards and proceed to hijack the bank, with Amy, Stuart, Veck, and Leon still inside as hostages. Amy asks Veck what they should do, but Veck reveals that not only is he one of the robbers, but that he's the leader.
Outside, the cops arrive, along with Sergeant Howard (Adam Ferrara), who takes charge of the situation and instructs the other officers to hold their positions while the rest of the civilians are evacuated.
Back at the arcade, Blart gets a phone call from Vijay's daughters boyfriend, Pahud (Adhir Kalyan), because Vijay had lent Blart his daughter's phone. Pahud gets into a jealous rage, and then breaks down in heartbreak over his break-up with Vijay's daughter. Pahud notes that he knows where Blart is and hangs up.
Blart realizes that the mall is now completely empty but brushes it off since it's close to closing time. As he rides his scooter back to the security office, Blart starts to notice that something is not right.
At the bank, Veck is instructing his accomplices to steal codes from each stores credit card machine. Veck then instructs all of the hostages in the back to give up all their cell phones, but Amy manages to sneak her phone under her leg. Veck takes the opportunity to harass Stuart, who is apparently quite cowardly.
At the mall's rear entrance, a group of police men try to sneak in, but the robbers have already rigged the doors with explosives and uses the mall security cameras to track any incoming forces. Sergeant Howard begins negotiations with Veck who makes the police think that he is trying to drill into the safe by holding a power drill to a cabinet. Howard follows the rules of negotiation without much success.
Blart encounters one of the robbers, thinking that he is a lost customer, until the man pulls a shotgun on him. Blart gets away, calls 911, and connects with Howard. Sergeant Howard instructs Blart to leave the mall and not get in the way, but as he gets to the entrance, Blart sees Amy's car and realizes that she is still inside. Blart goes back into the mall to save her.
Outside, Commander Kent (Bobby Carnivale) and the rest of the SWAT teams arrive and take charge. Kent calls Veck, but negotiations go nowhere. While Veck and his fellow robbers try to figure out their next move, Veck has an accomplice deal with Amy speaking to Maya, and Amy realizes that she is Blart's daughter. Maya also reveals that Blart talks on and on about Amy and how he feels about her. Amy secretly calls Blart and tells him that his daughter is a hostage too, and Blart is able to talk briefly to Maya. He swears that he will get them all out.
Blart sneaks by the bank and tosses in the unconscious robber's skateboard, causing diversion. While Veck and the others investigate, Blart is outside putting together traps, MacGyver style.
Blart makes a quick detour to pick a birthday card for Amy, and realizes the numbers on the robbers arms are for the credit card machines. Blart uses this information to draw out Veck, who needs the codes. Blart passes out due to low blood sugar, but luckily finds a moldy old lollipop on the floor and gets back in the game. Blart draws all the other robbers into a Rainforest Café where he has set up all his traps. The noise and movement inside the restaurant prevents the robbers from finding Blart, and he is able to sneak up on them one at a time, recording the codes on their arms on his cell phone.
Veck confronts Blart and demands the codes. Before anything can be done, one of Blart's traps go off, causing a huge explosion that rocks the mall. Blart uses the distraction to escape. Veck works it out that one of his hostages is helping Blart, and threatens Stuart into betraying Amy. Veck takes the phone, and Amy is furious with Stuart.
The final robber is tracking Blart and is distracted by a moving robot toy, just as Blart, dressed as a hockey-player mannequin, comes out from behind and knocks him out. Veck searches for dirt on Blart and sees a picture of Maya, and realizes that she is Blart's daughter, whom Veck uses to threaten Blart. This causes Blart to be even more determined to stop Veck and they head for a final showdown.
Blart steals the minivan that he had crashed into earlier and gives chase. Commander Kent gets into the minivan with Blart and they chase after Veck. Blart calls Pahud, getting him to use the GPS tracking in his ex-girlfriend's phone to locate Veck. Kent and Blart close in on Veck and Blart climbs on top of the minivan and attempts to land on top of Veck's vehicle, only to fail miserably and end up in a ditch. However, Blart takes a shortcut through a forest and intercepts Veck at an airstrip. Veck and Blart fight but Blart fakes passing out and kicks Veck's legs out from under him. As Blart cuffs Veck, Kent arrives to congratulate Blart, then pulls a gun on him. It turns out that Kent was working with Veck. Kent is about to shoot everyone to remove witnesses but the chief of security at the mall arrives and shoots the gun out of his hand.
As everything resolves, Blart gives Amy her birthday card, and Amy kisses him. Sergeant Howard offers Blart a job with the State troopers but Blart decides that he is already where he wants to be and stays with Amy.
During the end credits, additional scenes show Blart and Amy getting married in the mall, having a good time during their reception with all of their friends and family, including Pahud.
Production
The film began shooting in late February 2008 in Boston.[2] Principal shooting took place at the Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts after being denied a permit from Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, New Jersey. From late February until mid-April, the mall and its stores were decorated with Christmas decorations, and there was a large prop ball-pit in the main foyer of the mall near the Sears branch, and a Santa's Village at the opposite end near the Macy's branch in the same place that the mall usually puts its own Santa's Village. Interior filming took place mostly at night. The South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Massachusetts was the location of subsequent shooting.[citation needed]
Cast
- Kevin James as Paul Blart
- Keir O'Donnell as Veck Sims
- Jayma Mays as Amy
- Raini Rodriguez as Maya Blart
- Shirley Knight as Mrs. Blart
- Stephen Rannazzisi as Stuart
- Peter Gerety as Chief Brooks
- Bobby Cannavale as Commander Kent
- Adam Ferrara as Sergeant Howard
- Adhir Kalyan as Pahud
- Erick Avari as Vijay
- Jamal Mixon as Leon
- Allen Covert as Jerky Security Guy
- Bas Rutten as Drill Instructor
- Jason Ellis as Prancer
- Mike Escamilla as Vixen
- Mike Vallely as Rudolph
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 29% of critics gave positive reviews, based on 81 reviews. [3] Furthermore, another review aggreator, Metacritic, gave the film a 41/100 approval rating, based on 21 reviews from mainstream critics.[4]
Despite the generally negative reaction from critics, Roger Ebert awarded the film three stars for not having any adult-themed scenes, as in his review he wrote, "It's as slam-bang preposterous as any R-rated comedy you can name. It's just that Paul Blart and the film's other characters don't feel the need to use the f-word as the building block of every sentence."[5]
Box office
Paul Blart Mall Cop was a box office hit. The film ranked #1 at the Canadian and United States box office with $9,791,368 from 3,144 theaters for an opening-day average of $3,105. During the film's entire 3-day opening weekend, the film remained at #1, grossing a total of $31,832,636, for a 3-day average of $10,125, outgrossing its $26 million budget. It grossed $39,234,238 over the entire 4-day MLK weekend, for a 4-day average of $12,479. The film was the second-best opening of all-time for the MLK weekend, behind 2008's Cloverfield. The film stayed at #1 in its second weekend, grossing another $21,623,182, dropping just 32 percent, and boosting the 10-day income to $64,923,380.[6] As of April 28, 2009, the movie has grossed $176,102,023[1]
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How dumb? Very…
If you're in the mood for a movie that makes no sense, is completely
ryancm from United States - 26 June 2009unbelievable and dumb, dumb and DUMBER…This is the movie for you. It
doesn't even TRY to make sense so I guess the writers and producers got
what they wanted. Consider this a live action cartoon with a couple of
amusing incidents. But a couple of amusing incidents do not make a
movie. Good thing I got a free rental on this one. If I had paid to see
it I would have asked for a refund. The leading lady looks and acts
like a store dummy in a window and acts like one. The best that could
be said of the other (actors?) is that they take direction. Kevin James
should stay away from the big screen.
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