Observe and Report
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Jody Hill
Produced by	Donald De Line
Written by	Jody Hill
Starring	Seth Rogen Anna Faris Michael Peña Collette Wolfe and Ray Liotta
Music by	Joseph Stephens
Cinematography	Tim Orr
Editing by	Zene Baker
Studio	Legendary Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	April 10, 2009
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$18,000,000
Gross revenue	$24,881,177[1]

Observe and Report is a 2009 black comedy film written and directed by Jody Hill, starring Seth Rogen and Anna Faris.^[2][3]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Writing 3.2 Similarity to Paul Blart: Mall Cop 4 Reception 4.1 Critical reception 4.2 Box office 5 Home video release 6 Soundtrack 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Plot

An anonymous flasher exposes himself to shoppers in the Forest Ridge Mall parking lot. The head of mall security, Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen), makes it his mission to apprehend the offender. He is assisted by Charles and Dennis, and the Yuen twins, in his efforts.

Ronnie's dream girl, Brandi (Anna Faris) who works a mall make-up counter, is flashed the next day, becoming distraught over the situation. Ronnie tries to comfort her until a police officer, Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta), arrives and takes over Ronnie's palliative role. Ronnie feels threatened by this and is upset that his boss allowed an outside person to infringe on his search for the offender.

The criminal activity at the mall continues, as a masked person is seen robbing a shoe store, causing property damage. Detective Harrison is once again called in to investigate, his efforts hindered by Ronnie, who thinks that an Iraqi shopkeeper in the mall is the thief, based only on the fact that he is Iraqi. In response, Harrison curses out Ronnie during a meeting with Ronnie's superior, and Ronnie decides to take the steps necessary to become a real police officer.

As part of his preparations, Ronnie decides to ride along with Detective Harrison. Harrison, fed up with Ronnie, tricks him into walking into the most dangerous part of town, and drives off. Ronnie then confronts and subsequently subdues several drug dealers, victoriously returning to the police station with a dealer's son and thanking the detective for the opportunity to prove himself. Emboldened, Ronnie arranges a date with Brandi. On their date, Brandi consumes a large quantity of alcohol as well as several tablets of clonazepam which she took from Ronnie. Ronnie takes her home and has sex with her while she is semi-unconscious.

Ronnie fails the psychological examination for the police officer job. Nell (Collette Wolfe), a friendly food court worker, explains to him that her boss Roger and another female employee make fun of Nell for having her leg in a cast, leading Ronnie to threaten the two after giving Roger a severe beating. Depressed, he is coerced by Dennis to spend the day doing a wide variety of drugs and assaulting skateboarding teenagers. At the end of the day, Ronnie finds out that Dennis was the shoe thief, and that he has been stealing from the mall for quite some time. Ronnie is stunned and, after a brief argument, is knocked unconscious from behind by Dennis, who then flees to Mexico.

Ronnie decides to go "undercover" in order to catch the flasher. At night he sees Harrison having sex with Brandi in his cruiser, and he confronts her in front of onlookers at the mall the next day, damaging mall property in the process. Ronnie refuses to leave the mall and police are called in. Ronnie fights off many officers before being beaten in a fist fight with Harrison.

After a brief time in jail, and once his wounds heal, Ronnie returns to the mall, although now no longer as a security guard. He is approached by Nell back on both legs, and she kisses him to console him. Interrupting their romantic moment, the pervert flashes Nell and Ronnie and runs off, exposing himself to many other mall patrons. Ronnie, pursuing the flasher in a slow-motion sequence that includes him punching the Iraqi clerk from previously in the face, retrieves a gun from a closet and shoots the flasher as he approaches Brandi. Though she thanks him, Ronnie rejects her for sleeping with Harrison.

Refusing the flasher an ambulance, Ronnie takes him to the police station, impressing and insulting the officers who had previously ridiculed him. A victorious Ronnie is then interviewed with the other security guards and he is accompanied by Nell, who is now his new girlfriend, and he returns back to his job as the head of mall security.

[edit] Cast

• Seth Rogen as Ronnie Barnhardt, head of security at the mall. Abandoned by his father, Ronnie has a loving but dysfunctional relationship with his alcoholic mother.
• Anna Faris as Brandi, Ronnies dream girl, who works at the make-up counter in the mall.
• Ray Liotta as Detective Harrison
• Michael Peña as Dennis, mall security.
• Jesse Plemons as Charles, mall security.
• John Yuan as John Yuen, mall security
• Matthew Yuan as Matt Yuen, mall security
• Aziz Ansari as Saddamn,
• Collette Wolfe as Nell, a friendly food court worker.
• Celia Weston as Mrs. Barhardt
• Dan Bakkedahl as Mark
• Ben Best as Detective Okarski
• Randy Gambill as The Flasher
• Patton Oswalt as Roger
• Danny McBride as Caucasian Crackhead

[edit] Production

The film was shot on location in the largely abandoned Winrock Shopping Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.^[4] Filming began around May 2008 and took place in Wilmington, NC.

At the request of the studio, during the test screening stage the filmmakers created a version that was more toned down, but that was scrapped as the scores for the new version were lower than the original's.^[5]

[edit] Writing

Written and directed by Jody Hill. The megalomaniac, manic-depressive security guard Ronnie has been compared to Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver; Hill has mentioned it and also Scorsese's The King of Comedy as significant influences.^[6][7]

According to an interview with Danny McBride on the set of Land of the Lost, he states that the role of Detective Harrison was originally written for him, but his prior commitment to other films as well as the potential SAG strike led to him instead taking a cameo role as Caucasian Crackhead with the role of Detective Harrison going to Ray Liotta.

[edit] Similarity to Paul Blart: Mall Cop

The film has drawn some attention for having a similar premise and protagonist to the 2009 film Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Seth Rogen, in an interview with GQ, noted his awareness of a similar movie being made:

“

We knew the whole time, actually. And we're friends with those guys, so we would literally send each other pictures of the wardrobe, just to make sure we weren't stepping on each other's toes. They're totally different movies.[8]

”

Early reviews have described Observe and Report as a more mature film than Paul Blart, even being dubbed "the dark mall cop movie".^[9][10][11]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Critical reception

Critical reaction has been mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes, Observe and Report has an overall approval rating from critics of 50% with an average score of 5.4/10.^[12] By comparison, on Metacritic, the film has received an average score of 54, based on 34 reviews.^[13] Based on 11 reviews, Yahoo! Movies critics gave the film a B-.^[14]

Movies.com gave Observe and Report an A-, saying "Wrong to laugh... And yet..."^[15] and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three stars out of four and said Observe and Report revels in creeping you out and making you laugh hard.

The sex scene between Rogen and Faris attracted criticism from various groups.^[16] Referring to the moment where Ronnie Barnhardt is having sex with Faris's unresponsive character, Rogen said in an interview that "then she says, like, the one thing that makes it all okay," to which Antonia Zerbisias responded, arguing that "retroactive consent is not consent" and "there's no okay in rape".^[17] Peter Travers argued in Rolling Stone that while the scene does constitute date rape, "the bipolar Ronnie is acting totally in character," and that "the movie isn't condoning Ronnie's actions," just dishing out the kind of laughs "that stick in your throat." ^[18]

During an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Seth Rogen stated he was disappointed by the film's overall reception but proud that "the only two people who liked it" were Stern and David Letterman.^[19]

[edit] Box office

The film grossed $11,140,000 to open in fourth place in its first weekend of release, behind Hannah Montana: The Movie, Fast & Furious, and Monsters vs. Aliens (also featuring Seth Rogen). It averaged $4,085, playing in 2,727 theaters. To date it is the lowest-grossing film in which Seth Rogen plays a leading role, grossing $24,527,204 as of May 31, 2009^[20].

[edit] Home video release

The film was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on September 22, 2009.

[edit] Soundtrack

Observe and Report: Original Soundtrack
Soundtrack by Various Artists
Released	April 7, 2009
Genre	Soundtrack
Label	New Line Records

The soundtrack of Observe and Report was released on April 7, 2009.

1. "When I Paint My Masterpiece" by The Band (4:18)
2. "The Man" by Patto (6:07)
3. "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues" by McLusky (1:51)
4. "Sittin' Back Easy" by Patto (3:35)
5. "Brain" by The Action (2:59)
6. "Over Under Sideways Down" by The Yardbirds (2:22)
7. "Dwarves Must Die" by Dwarves (1:23)
8. "Help Is On Its Way" by Little River Band (4:00)
9. "Where Is My Mind?" by City Wolf (4:27)
10. "Babyteeth" by Pyramid (4:10)
11. "Observe and Report Score Suite" by Joseph Stephens (4:04)
12. "Super Freek (Remix)" by Amanda Blank, Nina Cream, and Aaron LaCrate (2:26)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Observe and Report at the Internet Movie Database
• Observe and Report at Rotten Tomatoes
• Observe and Report at Box Office Mojo
• Observe and Report at Allmovie