A Film Blog

Review: Observe And Report

It’s a beautiful mess that just happened to entertaining and intermittently hilarious. Going out, I felt I was way too critical; for most of the movie I was disecting Ronnie (the protagonist, played by Rogen) like a mental case, and I was the psychologist. In the end, I wasn’t laughing as much as the creative team behind the film would’ve wanted me to; instead I was mortified and sorry for Ronnie’s situation: who wants to laugh at a delusional psychopath? Mosts of the laughs came from the plot, the supporting characters, and the out-right randomness of the whole film. Jody Hill, the director of last summer’s indie The Foot Fist Way and the creator of HBO’s Eastbound And Down, has certainly carved out a niche and a style. Way follows a Tae-Kwon-Do instructor (Danny McBride) fall in and out of grace, and Eastbound is essentially a continuation of Way, just with McBride as a baseball star who’s fallen from grace. Way was excellent, and I waited anxiously for the series and Observe, knowing they’d be much of the same. And I was right. Observe is essentially the same movie, with Rogen in the lead (and McBride in a hilarious cameo) and sicker plot points. Anna Faris plays it safe as a bimbo once again, and my fav actor, Ray Liotta, is in top cop form, perfectly emulating his hatred for Ronnie’s antics. The dark style will divide viewers (*it has), but Jody Hill is here to stay, on HBO and in theatres (I hope). Like it said, this was a mess, but it is enjoyable and the sick, twisted finale is shockingly, well, shocking.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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