Let’s get something out of the way right now: the filmmakers created Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 to make money. It is abundantly clear while watching this movie that the creators have no story to tell, no message to convey. They simply wanted to rake in some more dough (which they have, earning over $68 million domestically). Given that starting point, it should come as no surprise that Mall Cop 2 is not a good movie. But it is a good bad movie. The predictable plot has the titular officer, played once again by Kevin James, heading to Las Vegas for a Security Officers Trade Association expo. Blart has had a rough life since the events on black Friday six years ago. His wife left him after six days of marriage. His mother died after a milk truck pancaked her. So he is looking forward to this get away. Needless to say, once he arrives in sin city, Blart must lock …show more content…
and load again, this time to stop a criminal named Vincent (Neal McDonough) from stealing the hotel’s art collection. This plot, summed up in less than a 100 words, receives terrible handling in the movie. The film takes an inordinate amount of time to get to the point where Blart must ride his Segway to victory as he defeats thieves. At least the first half of the movie, which is just over 90 minutes, is spent in exposition or uninteresting buildup to Blart in action. This would have been excusable if this part of the sequel delivered funny jokes (indeed, some of the funniest parts of the first film come before the heist begins), but aside from a smile here and there, this section does not offer much humor. The narrative, while dreadfully placed, seems the epitome of a gripping story compared to almost all the acting in Mall Cop 2. Nearly every actor gives a shallow, caricatured performance that strains believability. Raini Rodriguez as Blart’s daughter, McDonough as the baddie, David Henrie as Lane, Gary Valentine as Saul Gundermutt. Each of these important supporting players, and more, give extremely phony and stereotypical performances that insult the intelligence of moviegoers. Although the supporting cast is horrendous, Kevin James shows he can still play Kevin James well. He excels at his typical brand of comedy, which involves a lot of a fat man doing physical activities embarrassingly bad. More than that, he is just convincing enough of in the dramatic moments (more on those shortly) that audiences believe he is a character, not just a walking fat joke. Granted, this performance is not nuanced or especially deep (although James gets more to work with than the other actors) but James give the audience exactly what he needs to in this role. Plot and acting aside, the reason people watch a comedy is to laugh, and there are some laughs to be had in Mall Cop 2. This movie does induce laughter, but not the deep laughter of the original. Instead, it produces chuckles and smiles, providing amusement more than hilarity. The main reason for the drop-off in comedy lies in the unoriginality of the screenplay. Nearly everything in the script is just a thinly failed retread of the funniest parts of the first film. This movie, like the first one, includes Blart’s humorous attempts at acrobatics, a supposedly funny head butt scene, a sequence in which Blart inadvertently harms a woman, and struggles with common phrases. This small sampling represents merely a handful of the rip offs played for laughs. The movie is still funny, but its funniness is damaged by this clear copying. All of these aspects, both shortcomings and highlights, should be expected by someone watching Mall Cop 2.
The best part of Mall Cop 2, however, most viewers (including myself) would not expect: heart. This film carries much more emotional heft than the first film. Some of it fails, such as Blart’s quarrels with his daughter, but one of the emotional through lines works wonderfully. That through line is Blart’s loneliness. Although it is stereotypical, Blart’s struggles with his solitude strike a chord with anyone in the audience who has faced loneliness. This is effective for two reasons: the story and James’ performance. The story shows someone who used to feel lonely find happiness, only to be unceremoniously thrust back into the dungeon of aloneness. Anyone who is lonely knows that this is how it works: you may have reprieves in your isolation, but these only make your eventual, inevitable returns to loneliness more painful. James’ genuine performance as Blart also aids in this emotional connection because it seems he is reaching, at least a little, into his own emotions when he conveys Blart’s
isolation. In essence, the issue of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 is one of expectations. Viewers cannot expect the next great comedy out of this movie. They should expect a poor story and even worse acting (not to mention awful special effects). Going in with those expectations, moviegoers can still enjoy Mall Cop 2 because of James’ work, some funny moments, and the surprising heart of the sequel. Indeed, one of the most sadly touching moments in a 2015 movie I’ve seen (so far) comes when Blart says “We live as we dream: alone.” We may live and dream alone, but anyone afflicted with loneliness can find common ground in the appreciation of this theme.
Firstly, the script and plot were skilfully crafted creating superb film. Set in a Chicago were high school senior Ferris Bueller (Matthew Boderick) tricks his parents into thinking that he is unwell and unable to attend school because he wants to spend a day in downtown Chicago with his girlfriend Sloane (the beautiful Mia Sara)
One of the main products of this movie that popped out to me was the stars. They all seemed to be great actors even though I only knew one of them. For example, I thought that Ian Michael Smith did a great job portraying Simon Birch. He made the movie cute and funny all at once. I also thought that Joseph Mazello did a great job portraying relatable feelings in the movie. You could tell by his facial expressions what his mood was. All the actors did a great job and I can’t pinpoint one of them who did worse than the
This brief essay examines racism in the 1974 motion picture Conrack. The movie is an adaptation of Pat Conroy's autobiography, The Water Is Wide. The main character, Conrack, a young white male teacher portrayed by Jon Voight, is assigned to teach students from poor black families on a small island off the coast of South Carolina. The small community has little contact with the outside world and develops its own language. He finds the students essentially illiterate and their education neglected by state authorities. Poverty and their race cause neglect of their educational needs. The black school principal has convinced the students they are stupid and lazy. Conroy begins teaching the students useful, essential life skills. The community has no interest in learning about anything away from the island. The community has lived in fear of a nearby river because none can swim. While trying to improve the students' level of knowledge and their enthusiasm for
A police office to take notice of the people in the community and how the police can benefit from positive policing can allow greater help from the community. A neighborhood is helping out of fear but helping out of trust and love is more willing to grow as a community and want to protect their community. In the end, Jake Hoyte from this movie is an ideal figure of a detective who wants to help the world around him, although the actions in this movie is not ideal, but the positive aspect to provide good service to his community has certainly saved his
The film Friday Night Lights, directed by Peter Berg explains a story about a small town in Odessa, Texas that is obsessed to their high school football team (Permian Panthers) to the point where it’s strange. Boobie Miles (Derek Luke) is an cocky, star tailback who tore his ACL in the first game of the season and everyone in the town just became hopeless cause their star isn’t playing for a long time. The townspeople have to now rely on the new coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton), to motivate the other team members to be able to respect, step up their game, and improve quickly. During this process, racism has made it harder to have a success and be happy and the team has to overcome them as a family.
Officer Jenkins graduated from The University of Alabama in 1947. He was going to pursue his dream of becoming a professional football player, but in his last game at The University of Alabama he was hit in the head while diving for a ball in the endzone. His dream of becoming a professional football player was over, so he decided to become part of the police force. Today, Officer Jenkins is recognized all over the country for his bravery and commitment to the police force. Kevin Hart is a good fit for this role, because just like Officer Jenkins, he is well known all over the
The film stars Jack Nicholson as hard-boild detective, Jake Gittes, and Fay Dunaway, as Evelyn Cross Mulwray. Unlike The Big Sleep, the title Chinatown is referenced frequently throughout the film to symbolize a dark imbalanced universe filled with cheating, murder, water corruption, incest, sexual abuse, secrets, and violence. Early on the film, Chinatown is associated with cheating when Gittes shares a dirty joke, “A man who is bored with his wife decides to “screw like a Chinaman.” Chinatown represents a place of corruption where law enforcement does as “little as possible to help.” Jake holds a pessimistic, cynical, and apathetic view of the world because he feels powerless to the injustice and underlying forces of corruption and power in both Chinatown and Los Angeles. According to Gillian, two traditional conventions of film noir in Chinatown are themes of corruption and depravity. For example, Jake Gittes describes working for the D.A. in Chinatown: “I was trying to keep someone from being hurt. I ended up making sure she was hurt.” And that is what happens here. Here, Jake leaves Chinatown because he tried to help a woman, but his intervention inevitably hurt her. The injustices of law enforcement and conspiracies follow him on his venture to L.A, most notably with his former colleague Lt. Lo Excabar and Noah Cross who “owns the police” and practically the whole town. There is a clear animosity
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger is a story about a football town. The name of the town is Odessa. It is a small town on the west side of Texas and football is the only thing that matters. Bissinger gives the reader a glimpse of what life is like at an area high school called Permian. Very few towns are obsessed with sports like Permian and Ringgold when it comes to sports programs. In this essay, Permian and Ringgold sports will be compared by their programs and values that they place on sports.
After experiencing a traumatic car crash, Michelle, the protagonist of director Dan Trachtenberg’s film 10 Cloverfield Lane, wakes up in an underground bunker owned by a man named Howard. Howard claims to have saved her from a widespread chemical attack that has contaminated the air, with his bunker being the only place to take refuge for the next couple of years. Yet as the film progresses, Howard’s controlling and threatening demeanor eventually brings Michelle to escape, allowing her to come across the actuality of the situation outside the isolated bunker. Throughout the production, Trachtenberg arranges close frames, manipulates the camera’s focus, and chooses specific lighting to create an ominous tone that mystifies and disturbs viewers.
Spike Lee, through his undoubtedly inventive yet obtrusive camerawork, embodies emotional impact. From lateral panning and jumpy camera sequences to his use of perspective, Lee inspires intensity and apprehension. An odd synchronicity between the camerawork and subject matter fosters these emotional reactions and inspires inquisition; the viewer conceptualizes the camerawork to uncover a significance the narrative cannot deliver. The cop sequence retains suspense and effortlessly transfers Flipper’s anxiety; a “voyeuristic” perspective stimulates the former while rapid camera shifts and altering points of view maintain the latter. The scene in which Flipper asks for a promotion illustrates Lee’s emphasis on viewer impact and impression, sometimes at the cost
The 1920’s was an extraordinary time period filled with flappers, speakeasies, and gangsters. One of the most notorious gangsters during this time was a man named Al Capone. On February 14, 1929, seven bullet riddled corpses were discovered inside a garage inside a lonesome garage on Clark Street owned by gangster George “Bugs” Moran.
In the idealistic world of many teenagers, the perfect day includes not having to go to school and hanging out with their friends. They’d go for a drive, and do anything they could, because why not? This dream is brought to life in the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a product of John Hughes, mastermind behind all of our favorite 1980s teen movies. It captivates the viewer and makes us all feel like calling in sick to school or work, just to have a day like Ferris’. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is the best movie ever because of its screenplay, casting, cinematography, audience reception, and sound.
“I said it before and I’ll say it again, life moves pretty fast, you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” This is how the audience meets Ferris Bueller. John Hughes’ 1986 film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off had quite a bit of appeal that brought the attention of many viewers. A film about a beloved senior in high school who decides to play hooky for the day and go on an adventure around Chicago. The trailer doesn’t do much to tell much about the plot, instead, it introduces the main character by a sequence of opinions that background characters are saying of the delightful Ferris Bueller. Bueller is described, via the trailer, as a character that influences his peers – gaining him popularity – in ways they find
In The Shawshank Redemption, a film directed by Frank Darabont, Friendship is a prominent theme that is explored throughout the story of Andy Dufresne, Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding and their imprisonment and subsequent friendship. Darabont uses a range of techniques in this film to convey that theme of friendship, such as lighting, dialogue, music/score, Camera angles, mise-en-scene and camera shots.
The “Bad Girls Club” display groups of women who are obsess with drinking and violent behavior to handle their situations, shining the light on negative stereotypes, defining a “bad girls” and the influencing young girls in today’s society. The way these girls act on TV is the way the media portray women as vulnerable and in need of male attention. By depicting women solely as physical objects, we rarely see them as powerful. Women have often seen each other as competition in many realms of their lives and so have become adept at quickly sizing up their female competition as to what makes a women’s woman (Kramer 210).The show 's has a foundation of seven women with personal, social and psychological problems, who consider their self to be