Mum's Monday: Paul Blart: Mall-Cop

Paul Blart (Kevin James) has a lot of enthusiasm and dedication, however he is living with his mom (Shirley Knight) and daughter, Maya (Raini Rodriguez) and is a failed state trooper, turned mall cop.

He takes his job so seriously, he is borderline obsessive, but this is not a bad thing, to be dedicated to your job.

He has a crush on Amy (Jayma Mays), who works on a wig and hair extensions stall at the mall. The chemistry between them is well thought-out and written and is realistic to what does happen.

A new recruit has joined the team Veck Simms (Keir O’Donnell) it is fun to watch Paul train up Veck, although he does make some good points about the mind being better than a gun. Later on we see how Paul out smarts the criminal gang, with only a few minor mistakes along the way though.

The film is heart-warming with a fantastic soundtrack, on the face of it, choosing music for a film about a mall and the security officer protecting it, seems tricky but for this film they have found some great music that really works for this film.

What also works is when Paul is playing games in the gaming store whilst the gang is taking over the mall. it was the best place for him, if he had been anywhere else I don’t think it would’ve worked, as there was a smooth transition between scenes where he became all alone out on the mall floor, and the gang unaware of him being there. It was clever to see how it all worked out. He was confused at first, anyone would be, but he soon finds out what has happened.

Paul is an unsung hero as portrayed when he leaves the mall, only to find Amy is still inside, being held hostage. Paul then becomes ‘Our man on the inside’ taking out the gang one by one. This is genius and shows what you can achieve when you have a whole mall full of goodies at your disposal. Including The Rainforest Café and a sports wear shop.

It is well thought out, as he uses the shop floor items as disguises, distractions and weapons to discourage the gang members. As in the rain forest café there were places where Paul hid and ultimately could jump out, surprise and temporarily eliminate another member of the gang. These scenes were not overdone, the writer’s/ film makers worked out, what would be on sale, what types of retail outlets, restaurants there would be in a typical mall and how best to use these items in a hostage situation.   

Another funny scene was when Cmdr James Kent (Bobby Cannavale) arrives and says “I’m in charge” clearly he wasn’t and I thought “No you are not Paul Blart is”, and as proof of this, it is funny as when he doesn’t want to talk to James over his walkie talkie radio, Paul uses his mobile phone and phones the person he does actually want to speak to and has been asking James over and over again to speak to, that is, head of security, Chief Brooks (Peter Gerety). Putting Paul firmly in charge of the situation.