Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Directed by	Steve Carr
Written by	Kevin James Nick Bakay
Produced by	Adam Sandler Kevin James Barry Bernardi
Starring	Kevin James Jayma Mays Keir O'Donnell
Cinematography	Russ T. Alsobrook
Edited by	Jeff Freeman
Music by	Waddy Wachtel
Production company	Happy Madison
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	January 16, 2009
Running time	87 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million
Box office	$64,923,380

Paul Blart: Mall Cop is a 2009 American comedy film starring Kevin James, Keir O'Donnell, and Jayma Mays. It was released on January 16, 2009 in the United States by Columbia Pictures.

Plot

The movie opens at the New Jersey State Police Academy in the autumn of 2008. Paul Blart (Kevin James), a single father, tries out to be a cop. He does surprisingly well on the obstacle course despite his size, but passes out due to hypoglycemia, and fails the course.

He lives with his mother and daughter, who try to find him a girlfriend on a dating website, as his wife had previously left him, and he had been feeling lonely ever since. He tries to make ends meet as a security officer at West Orange Pavilion Mall. He takes the job very seriously, but receives no respect from the patrons. The next day, Blart is introduced to a new trainee named Veck Sims. Blart takes him on a tour of the mall, teaching him the basics. While patrolling the mall, Blart sees - and falls for - a kiosk owner, Amy. After a few attempts to muster up courage, Blart tries to talk to Amy, but awkwardly asks for hair products instead. Upon their second "meeting", Blart offers to give Amy a ride to her car on his Segway, and they agree to meet later in a bar where the mall staff are regular patrons. Unfortunately, Blart accidentally gets drunk, and humiliates himself in front of everybody present. Thinking he has ruined his chances with Amy, Blart returns home in low spirits.

On Black Friday, a group of robbers disguised as Santa's helpers "seize the mall" while Blart is inside the arcade playing Rock Band. The robbers chase most of the shoppers and staff outside. However, some of the mall staff, including Amy, are taken hostage inside the mall's bank. Veck reveals himself to be the ringleader, and intends to steal thirty million dollars from the mall by obtaining the codes to the mall's credit card machines.

The West Orange Police, led by Sgt. Howard, surround the mall, but are unsure of the actual conditions inside. Meanwhile, Blart realizes that the mall has been taken over, and he makes contact with Sgt. Howard. However, the moment he finds out Amy is among the hostages, Blart resolves to take the matter in his own hands. He begins incapacitating the robbers one-by-one, and recording the stolen credit card codes. Outside, SWAT Commander Kent arrives to take control over the operation, and he ultimately dismisses Blart's actions. He shows that he is much more willing than Sgt. Howard to raid the mall, regardless of the hostages' safety. While Blart is busy fighting the robbers, his daughter, Maya, arrives at the mall to deliver his dinner, but she is quickly taken hostage by Veck. She then meets Amy, and tells her how Blart really feels about her.

Finally, Blart manages to incapacitate all of Veck's henchmen, but Veck discovers Maya's identity, and he tries to force Blart to give him the codes in exchange for her life. Instead, Blart distracts Veck with a mannequin, and tries to free the hostages, but fails. He is forced to give Veck the codes, and he escapes the mall with Amy and Maya in tow. Blart follows them, with Commander Kent finally on his side. Blart finds out that Veck is headed to a nearby airport, and ambushes him there, successfully restraining him. However, Commander Kent then attempts to kill Blart and points a gun at his head, and reveals that he was working with Veck the entire time. Fortunately, Sgt. Howard had followed them, and quickly arrests Commander Kent. Blart and Amy are re-united, and Howard offers to let Blart become a full-fledged police officer. Blart steadfastly refuses, saying that his place is helping people in his mall.

Production

The film began shooting in late February 2008 in Boston. Principal shooting took place at the Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts after being denied a permit from Willowbrook Mall (Wayne, New Jersey). From late February until mid-April, the mall and its stores were decorated with Christmas decorations, and there was a large prop ball-pit in the main foyer of the mall near the Sears branch, and a Santa's Village at the opposite end near the Macy's branch in the same place that the mall usually puts its own Santa's Village. Filming took place mostly at night. The South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Massachusetts was the location of subsequent shooting.

The titular cop is played by Kevin James with Keir O'Donnell as his counterpart. Ugly Betty recurring star Jayma Mays plays James' love interest. The film is directed by Steve Carr.

Mays on Set, Burlington Mall

James on Set, Burlington Mall

Cast

• Kevin James as Paul Blart
• Keir O'Donnell as Veck Sims
• Jayma Mays as Amy
• Raini Rodriguez as Maya Blart
• Shirley Knight as Paul's Mom
• Stephen Rannazzisi as Stuart
• Peter Gerety as Chief Brooks
• Bobby Cannavale as Commander Kent
• Adam Ferrara as Sergeant Howard
• Adhir Kalyan as Pahud
• Erick Avari as Vijay
• Allen Covert as Jerky Security Guy
• Bas Rutten as Drill Instructor
• Jason Ellis as Prancer
• Mike Escamilla as Blitzen
• Mike Vallely as Rudolph

Reception

The film received generally negative and mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 27% of critics gave positive reviews, based on 81 reviews. On contrast, another review aggreator, Metacritic, gave the film a 41/100 approval rating, based on 21 reviews from mainstream critics.

Despite the mixed reaction from critics, famed critic Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 stars for not having any adult-themed scenes, as in his review he wrote, "It's as slam-bang preposterous as any R-rated comedy you can name. It's just that Paul Blart and the film's other characters don't feel the need to use the f-word as the building block of every sentence."

Box office

For the movie's debut, it ranked #1 at the box office with $9,791,368 from 3,144 theaters for an opening-day average of $3,105. During the film's entire 3-day opening weekend, the film remained at #1, grossing a total of $31,832,636, for a 3-day average of $10,125, outgrossing its $26 million budget. It grossed $39,234,238 over the entire 4-day MLK weekend, for a 4-day average of $12,479. The film was the second-best opening of all-time for the MLK weekend, behind 2008's Cloverfield.

External links

• Official site
• Paul Blart: Mall Cop at IMDb
• Paul Blart: Mall Cop at Box Office Mojo
• Paul Blart: Mall Cop at Metacritic
• Paul Blart: Mall Cop at Rotten Tomatoes