Meta Critic Watch: "Observe and Report"

"Observe and Report" features Seth Rogan, Anna Faris, and few short appearances by Jay Liotta. Seth Rogan plays an ambitious mall cop looking to arrest a "serial flasher" terrorizing the mall to impress Anna Faris' character and garner credentials for admittance to the Police Academy. The popular buzz is that the film will be another installment in the great collection of Seth Rogan comedies, but it would seem the vast majority of reviewers observed otherwise.

Scott Mendelson of "Film Threat" gave "Observe and Report" the highest rating of the critics being discussed for this movie with a score of 80/100. Although this film is a comedy, the review focused much more on the extending metaphors and satires of the American experience developed in the film. It almost seemed as if he was attempting to justify the uncomfortable jokes in the film with contemplative commentary: "The picture is a case study of both a garden-variety delusional thug and the bitter disillusionment of an entire nation." Overall, Scott seemed to enjoy the film, but not as a comedy.

"USA TODAY" critic Claudia Puig was next down on the depth chart with a score of 63/100. As reflected by her rating, Ms. Puig was split on the nature of the film. "While she But where Mall Cop is broad, safe and sticks to a formula, Observe and Report is unabashedly crude, cynical, off-kilter and funnier." But her kudos seem more out of respect for what the film is trying to do than what it actual does. For her it fell too deeply into the pressing depression and hovering despair experienced by the characters.

Michael Phillips of "The Chicago Tribune" is the next one down on the list of decreasing enjoyment of the film. Mr. Phillips' review bordered on a pan of the film with a score of 50/100. Saving graces for Michael: Seth Rogan is too lovable a character to let the film go completely to hell. Woeful aspects: well, there were a lot more of these than saving graces. "But the fault lies with writer-director Jody Hill, whose micro-budget comedy "The Foot Fist Way" got a strange amount of attention from the sleep-deprived regulars at the Sundance Film Festival." Not only does he not like Hill's last film, but he obviously feels he shouldn't have gotten a second-chance at a higher-budget film. According to Michael only 10/85 minutes were actually funny. Enough said.

"I thought it was gonna be funny, but it's just sad." For the "Dallas Observer's" Robert Wilonsky, this line was his experience with the film. The characters evolved from overly optimistic to nearly overbearing in their gloominess. Outside of a few scenes of shock-humor, there are just poor attempts at dark-humor. While Seth Rogan commands respect for his newly developed range of acting, the writing and attempts at humor were just that: attempts. For his effort, Robert awarded Jody Hill a 30/100.

Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" gave the film the lowest rating of the barrel: 10/100. His opening statement of the review says it all: "If you thought Abu Ghraib was a laugh riot then you might love “Observe and Report,” a potentially brilliant conceptual comedy that fizzles because its writer and director, Jody Hill, doesn’t have the guts to go with his spleen. The sadistic induced laughter and incongruities in the comedic themes repulsed and created a melancholy nature in the film. Instead of being able to just sit back and laugh, there were too many instances where questioning of political and ethical idealisms overwhelmed the audiences ability to laugh. Manohla loves Seth Rogan, but the writing-directing of Jody Hill ruined the film for him.

Overall, the film garnered a rating of 54/100, and the vast majority of critics seemed extremely let down by the writing and directing of Jody Hill. Many already did love and continue to love Seth Rogan in the film, but the lack of actual funny material in contrast to the amount of depressing dialogue and lost dreams ruin the film. Having read many reviews on the film I'm under the impression I should wait until it comes out to rent.