Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Theatrical release poster
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 Peter Gerety Bobby Cannavale Adam Ferrara
Cinematography	Russ T. Alsobrook
Edited by	Jeff Freeman
Music by	Waddy Wachtel
Production company	Happy Madison
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	January 16, 2009 (US) March 20, 2009 (UK)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$26 million
Box office	$180,445,413

Paul Blart: Mall Cop is a 2009 American action 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

At the New Jersey State Police training facility, new recruits are running an obstacle course. Despite being overweight, Paul Blart (Kevin James) completes almost the entire course in amazing time, but passes out at the very end from hypoglycemia before the finish line.

While on patrol at work riding his Segway PT, Blart notices a new wig kiosk and the kiosk's vendor, Amy (Jayma Mays). Back at base Blart has to take the new guy, Veck Simms (Keir O'Donnell), out on another patrol to train him. Veck watches horrified as Blart pulls over an elderly man on a scooter and attempts to give him a ticket; then inadvertantly makes a row between two women worse by telling a fat woman that he understands it's hard to be fat and she attacks him. At the end of Blart's shift, he becomes acquainted with Amy and gives her a ride back to her car. That night at the mall worker's party he tries to talk to Amy but another worker (a pen salesman) informs him that he might as well give up Veck steps forward to help Blart but ignores his thanks. Depressed, Blart accidentally gets drunk and embarrasses himself in front of Amy, culminating in a fall through the window of American Joe's.

On Black Friday, Amy, Veck and other colleagues are in the bank to cash their paychecks. Blart is heading there too, but the owner of the video arcade asks him to help him close the store. While a gang break in through the service entrance and prepare to take over the mall by force, Blart is focused on playing Rock Band. The robbers clear the mall and take hostages in the bank. The hostages get down, except Veck, who reveals that he is the ringleader of the gang. Veck plans to use credit card codes to steal $30 million and fly to Cayman Islands. He also plans to take the hostages with them.

After Blart finishes the game, his borrowed cell-phone rings, and a guy named Pahud calls to speak to Vijay's daughter, though Blart explains that her dad gave him the phone (as punishment to his daughter for going over her minutes), and they become quick friends. Pahud reveals he can locate the cellphone via GPS.

As Blart leaves the arcade, he is attacked by a gang-member, escapes, then calls the police. Police sergeant Howard (Adam Ferrara) instructs him to leave the mall immediately, but when he sees Amy's car in the parking lot, he goes back in to save her and his friends. Subsequently, SWAT Commander James Kent (Bobby Cannavale), who was a high school athlete who used to bully Blart, takes control of the situation over Howard's protests.

While Blart fights against the gang members (who use various forms of martial arts and appear to know parkour) through improvised measures (even at one point blowing up the kitchen of a Rainforest Cafe), Maya arrives to bring Paul his dinner, but she is intercepted by the henchmen and taken away to the rest of the hostages.

After Blart works his way through all of Veck's underlings, such as by crushing Vixen by falling on top of her when he is crawling in a vent and by senting Blitzen flying into a ball pit. He tries to extract the hostages, but fails and is captured. Veck demands to have the credit card codes back and Blart gives him the phone of Vijay's daughter that contains the codes and, while Veck is distracted, skillfully flicks some of Leon's hot sauce (called the "Devil's Crotch") into Vecks eye but Blart doesn't capitalize on the distraction. Then Veck escapes with the codes and holds Amy and Maya at gunpoint.

Blart steals the mall's display minivan and chases after Veck with Commander Kent. Using GPS and Pahud's help, they track Veck to an airstrip. Veck fights Blart, ending with Blart being the victor. After Blart cuffs Veck, Kent pulls a gun on him, revealing that he was working with Veck the whole time. Kent is about to kill Blart, but Chief Brooks of mall security shoots the gun out of his hand and Howard arrests him.

The next morning, Maya is proud of her father and Blart gives Amy a birthday card; Amy kisses him. Sergeant Howard offers Blart a job with the West Orange Police, but, with quick thinking, he decides that he should stay at the Mall with Amy and the rest of his friends.

During the end credits, bonus scenes show Blart and Amy getting married in the mall with Paul's family and friends there, including Pahud.

Cast

• Kevin James as Paul Blart: A security guard (or "Officer" in his opinion) who takes his job very seriously. Blart has dreamt of becoming a state trooper for a long time and always fails the physical exam because he is hypoglycemic. Blart has been doing his job for 10 years now and lives with his mother and his daughter, whose mother was an illegal immigrant who tricked him into marriage to get a green card. When the mall is taken over, Blart decides to stay and fight because his crush, Amy is hostage. Blart's favourite vehicle is his segway. He is non-alcoholic and when he does drink he becomes obnoxious and delusional. Kevin James stated that Blart had probably tried for a state trooper eight times making him well equipped for mall protection. It is implied that Blart is shy as he had an imaginary friend in high school. Blart serves as the protagonist of the film.
• Keir O'Donnell as Veck Simms: At first he seems like a washed-up security guard trainee, but is later revealed to be a sarcastic, intelligent bank robber who works for a corrupt SWAT operative and leads his own gang of robbers. He serves as the main antagonist of the film. He is ultimately defeated by Blart.
• Jayma Mays as Amy: A kind woman who owns a kiosk called "UnbeWEAVEable" and falls in love with Blart.
• Raini Rodriguez as Maya Blart: Blart's daughter from a marriage to an illegal immigrant. She, unlike most teenagers, does not have a cellphone and prefers handwritten sentiments.
• Shirley Knight as Paul Blart's mother
• Stephen Rannazzisi as Stuart: the pen salesman
• Peter Gerety as Chief Brooks: Blart's senile boss and friend.
• Bobby Cannavale as Commander Kent: A SWAT operative who used to bully Blart in high school. He is revealed to be Veck's employer
• Adam Ferrara as Sergeant Howard: The only sensible cop
• Adhir Kalyan as Pahud: An egocentric Indian teenager that Blart befriends via cellphone.
• Erick Avari as Vijay
• Jamal Mixon as Leon: A morbidly obese friend.
• Allen Covert as Jerky Security Guy
• Bas Rutten as Drill Instructor
• Jason Ellis as Prancer
• Natascha Hopkins as Vixen
• Mike Escamillia as Blitzen
• Mike Vallely as Rudolph
• Gary Valentine as Karaoke Singer

Production

Kevin James at set of Paul Blart: Mall Cop in Burlington, Massachusetts

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 in 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. Interior filming took place mostly at night. The South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Massachusetts was the location of subsequent shooting. Airport scenes were filmed at LG Hanscom Field, Bedford, Ma.

Release

Critical reception

The film received generally negative reviews from movie critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film has a "Rotten" rating of 37%, based on 103 reviews. Furthermore, another review aggregator, Metacritic, calculated for the movie a similarly low approval rating of 39 out of 100, which indicates "generally unfavorable reviews", based on 24 reviews from mainstream critics. One notable exception being Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times.

Box office

Despite negative reviews, Paul Blart: Mall Cop became very successful at the box office. The film ranked #1 at the domestic 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, with a per-screen 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. The film stayed at #1 in its second weekend, grossing another $21,623,182, dropping just 32 percent, and boosting the 10-day income to $64,923,380. In its third weekend it dropped to second place with $13,872,751, a 36 percent decline from the last weekend, for an average of $4,327 from 3,206 theaters, bringing the 17-day gross to $83,247,655. In its fourth weekend, it dropped to fifth place with $10,884,825, a drop of 22 percent from the last weekend, for an average of $3,435 from 3,169 theaters, and bringing the 24-day tally to $96,886,687. In its fifth weekend (President's Day weekend), it dropped to sixth place, making another $10,983,319 over the three day span, actually increasing 1 percent, for an average of 3,704 from 2,965 theaters, and bringing the 31-day total to $109,787,819, having broke the $100 million mark on Friday February 13. Over the 4-day President's Day weekend, it made $13,574,027 for an average of $4,578, and bringing the 32-day cume to $112,388,524. The film closed on Monday May 25, 2009, with a final domestic gross of $146,336,178, with the 3-day opening weekend making up 21.75 percent of the total gross (26.81 percent for the 4-day opening weekend). The film also has so far made an additional $36,625,591 internationally, bringing the total worldwide gross to $182,961,769, which against a modest $26 million budget, makes it a huge financial success.

Home media

Paul Blart: Mall Cop was released on DVD, Blu-Ray, and UMD on May 19, 2009. The DVD sold 1,817,747 copies, making $29,411,146 USD for the week of May 24, 2009, having only been out for 6 days, and it ranked number one for DVD sales that week as well. Furthermore, for the week of May 31, 2009, it again made number one on the U.S DVD Charts as it sold an additional 553,681 copies and making $9,921,964 USD for a total, to date, of 2,371,428 units sold with earnings of $39,333,110 USD as of June 1, 2009. Combined with results from the Box Office and total DVD sales as of June 1, 2009, Paul Blart: Mall Cop has made a total of $219,778,523 USD.

External links

• Official website
• 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