Observe and Report

Observe and Report
A head photo of man dressed as a police officer, wearing large dark glasses. 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 Ray Liotta
Music by	Joseph Stephens
Cinematography	Tim Orr
Edited by	Zene Baker
Production company	De Line Pictures Legendary Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	April 10, 2009 (2009-04-10)
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$18,000,000
Box office	$26,973,554

Observe and Report is a 2009 American black comedy film written and directed by Jody Hill, starring Seth Rogen, Anna Faris and Ray Liotta.

Plot

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

The next day, Ronnie's dream girl, Brandi, who works a mall make-up counter, encounters the flasher and is distraught over the situation. Ronnie tries to comfort her until a police officer, Detective Harrison, arrives and takes over Ronnie's palliative role. Ronnie is upset that his boss allowed an outsider 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 Saddamn, an Arab shopkeeper in the mall is the thief, based on the fact that he is an Arab. Ronnie curses Saddamn out, and Harrison profanely excoriates Ronnie for this during a meeting with Ronnie's superior, and in response, Ronnie decides to take steps to become a 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 assaults 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 sees Ronnie taking a prescription clonazepam, and thinking that Ronnie takes them recreationally, she asks him for the bottle, from which she consumes multiple tablets herself with several alcoholic beverages. Ronnie takes her home and has sex with her while she is apparently semi-conscious, and at one point, when he stops mid-coitus, she says, "Why are you stopping, motherfucker?", compelling him to continue.

Ronnie fails the psychological examination for the police officer job. Nell, a friendly food court worker, explains to him that her boss, Roger and Trina, another female employee make fun of Nell for having her leg in a cast. Ronnie then beats up Roger and warns him and Trina not to harass Nell again. Depressed, he is persuaded 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 some time. Ronnie is stunned and, after a brief argument, is knocked unconscious 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, and he confronts her in front of onlookers at the mall the next day, blowing his cover and inadvertently destroying a display case. When the police are summoned, Ronnie fights them and Harrison. Ronnie loses the fight and is arrested.

After a night in jail, Ronnie returns to the mall, fired from his job. Despondent, he sits at a food court table, where Nell, whose cast has been removed, and is sporting a more flattering hairdo, brings him a complimentary cup of coffee. As a vulnerable Ronnie expresses his sadness over his situation, Nell kisses him. Interrupting their romantic moment, the flasher exposes himself to 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 Saddamn in the face, retrieves a gun and shoots the flasher in the shoulder as he charges toward Brandi. Refusing the flasher an ambulance, Ronnie brings the flasher to his feet to take him to the police station, and as he does so, his boss, Mark rehires him. Though Brandi compliments Ronnie on a job well done, Ronnie rejects her compliment and humiliates her publicly for betraying him. Ronnie drops the flasher off at the police station, and boasts to Harrison of his feat, saying that he does not need a badge or gun to know who he is. Ronnie is then interviewed by the local news with Nell and his fellow security guards by his side.

Cast

• Seth Rogen as Ronnie
• Ray Liotta as Detective Harrison
• Michael Peña as Dennis
• Collette Wolfe as Nell
• Anna Faris as Brandi
• Aziz Ansari as Saddamn
• Dan Bakkedahl as Mark
• Jesse Plemons as Charles
• John Yuan as John Yuen
• Matthew Yuan as Matt Yuen
• Celia Weston as Mom
• Randy Gambill as Pervert
• Patton Oswalt as Roger
• Danny McBride as Caucasian Crackhead
• Alston Brown as Bruce
• Cody Midthunder as D-Rock
• Lauren Miller as Trina

Production

The film was shot on location in the largely abandoned Winrock Shopping Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Filming began around May 2008 and took place in Wilmington, North Carolina.

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

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.

Similarity to Paul Blart: Mall Cop

The film has drawn some attention for having a similar premise and protagonist to the 2009 family comedy 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.

In comparing the two, Observe and Report was dubbed by some reviewers as "the dark mall cop movie".

Reception

File:Faris & Rogen at Observe and Report Premiere.jpg

Anna Faris and Seth Rogen fielding questions at the film's premiere at the 2009 South by Southwest Festival

Critical response

Observe and Report was met with mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 51%, based on 201 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's consensus reads: "Though it has a mean streak, and does not cater to all tastes, Observe and Report has gut-busting laughs and a fully committed Seth Rogen in irresistible form." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 54 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film a rating of three out of four stars, saying, "Hill is fearless at pushing hot buttons: date rape, shooting up and worse," and "Rogen is nutso hilarious, nailing every note of mirth and malice." Conversely, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian awarded the movie one star out of five and disparaged Rogen's performance, writing "for Seth Rogen fans like me, this charmless, heavy-handed and cynical comedy is an uncomfortable experience." Paul Byrnes wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald, "Much of the movie is just plain vicious. At best, it's sad and grotesque, rather than hilarious," while Manohla Dargis of The New York Times stated "if you thought Abu Ghraib was a laugh riot you might love Observe and Report." She continued, "It’s far better and certainly easier... to sit back and relax and enjoy the show. That, after all, is precisely what Hollywood banks on each time it manufactures a new entertainment for a public that — as the stupid, violent characters who hold up a mirror to that public indicate — it views with contempt."

The sex scene between Rogen and Faris attracted criticism from various groups. Referring to the moment where Ronnie Barnhardt is having sex with Faris' intoxicated 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". 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."

During an interview on The Howard Stern Show, 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.

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 mainstream film of Rogen's starring career, and second lowest-grossing film overall before Take this Waltz, grossing $26,973,554.

Home media

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

Soundtrack

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

Observe and Report: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on April 7, 2009 by New Line Records.

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

The Queen songs "It's Late" and "The Hero" are featured in the film but not included on the soundtrack.

External links

• Official website
• Observe and Report at IMDb
• Observe and Report at Rotten Tomatoes
• Observe and Report at Box Office Mojo
• Observe and Report at AllMovie