Paul Blart Mall Cop: Grade C

C
Paul Blart Mall Cop (2009)
Kevin James, Jayma Mays, Raini Rodriguez; Director Steve Carr.

James is a proud but lonely security guard at a typical American suburban shopping mall. He imagines that he is actually a state trooper as he whips around the mall on his Segway. He longs for a young woman (Mays) merchant in the mall, to no avail. Bad guys invade the mall, take hostages, and it is up to James to save the day. The story is completely formulaic. It could have been lifted directly from Kung Fu Panda, for example, but the attractiveness of the movie is actually James’ comedic talent, which is considerable. He’s a great face actor, and remarkably light on his feet, turning in some good stunts. The script has some delicious moments (James co-wrote), such as when he corrects someone about his title: “Security Officer, actually, not Security Guard.” More of that could have made it a real winner. The movie is apparently designed for children (or adults with child-like minds), so a scene where he gets sloppy drunk in a bar seems out of place, but that is the only false note. It’s the kind of movie that makes you smile rather than laugh out loud.

Going Shopping: Grade B

B
Going Shopping (2005)
Victoria Foyt, Lee Grant, Mae Whitman. Cowriter and director: Henry Jaglom.

This extremely low budget indie explores shopping obsession among women. The owner of an upscale clothing store in Beverly Hills (Foyt) discovers she is broke and about to be evicted from the shop. Her boyfriend apparently stole her money, but that topic is not explored. The point is she is broke, so she plans a big Mother’s Day sale to raise money to make rent and postpone eviction. She is also a single mom and her preteen daughter (Whitman) is rebellious, but nevertheless steeped in the culture of fashion, clothing, and lookism. The shopkeeper's mother (Grant) is a California granny determined to look 20 years old forever, who hassles her but eventually helps out in a surprising way that should have been the narrative theme of the movie, but is only a throwaway.

The women shoppers are California youth-worshipping, age-denying, more-money-than-brains stereotypes. Foyt tries to borrow from a very nice but utterly ruthless mobster, in one of the most entertaining scenes, and tries to enlist a capital partner, among many ploys to raise the cash. Liberally interspersed are dozens of 60 second interviews with women who explain various aspects of their shopoholic obsession directly to the camera. These are well acted and the women have interesting faces, but since we know it is all scripted, it is not particularly convincing or revealing. There are pathological shopping obsessions, but there is no reason to believe they look like this. As a psychological exploration, a documentary approach would have been better. As it stands, the social commentary about female shopping verges on misogyny. The movie has no narrative drive so feels much longer than its 106 minutes. The big sale is a success, the shopkeeper pays the rent, but now has no inventory, and still no money, so the McGuffin remains essentially unaddressed. The film thus fails as a narrative and as a social commentary, leaving only good acting, satirical visuals and dialog, attractive actors, and bright sunny California colors, all of which are enjoyable in a mindless sort of way.