Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

Image Source

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 shall forever be known as the sequel nobody demanded, but it’s here. It exists. I may be in the minority, but I actually enjoyed the first Paul Blart movie. The sequel is something else entirely. In the first movie, the character of Paul Blart felt like a genuine underdog, and someone I actually wanted to root for. Here, he comes off as an annoying, unlikable douche-bag. The over-protective dad jokes are irritating and cliched. The plot meanders, and the movie feels longer than it is. The actual plot of the film only takes up the last twenty minutes of the movie. The rare laugh that does show itself is consistently under-cut by the fact that you never want to root for the main character. Jokes are too mean-spirited. The movie tries to make light of jokes that involve sexism and sexual harassment. There is a scene in the film involving a drunk man hitting on a woman, and our “hero” tries to help out by putting the blame on her. Sorry, I just don’t find that to be in good taste. That’s heavy stuff for a family film. The first ten minutes of the movie involves divorce and death. Because that’s funny, right? I beg to differ. I like Neal McDonough and D.B. Woodside, but the film underuses the both of them. Fortunately, Neal McDonough does get the occasional laugh. The rest of the funny gags, however, are used up in the trailer, which is almost never a good sign. It’s kind of hard to find anything else to say about this movie that is far more offensive than your average family comedy should be. Even though I enjoyed the first movie, the sequel is definitely a movie to skip.           

1 / 10