'Paul Blart' Trips Up Thieves (Also Snobs and Movie Critics)

Why in the world would you turn up your nose at Paul Blart: Mall Cop? The only reason I can come up with is that you go to movies to impress other people instead of to entertain yourself.

The Washington Post–that peerless identifier of good times–put gadfly Hank Stuever up to writing about the popularity of the picture. Hank wrote this: “Living in a country that makes Paul Blart the top movie two weeks in a row is like realizing how many people think crotchless lingerie is sexy….” What would you bet Hank doesn’t think a movie’s any good unless he leaves the theater with a headache?

You wanna know the problem with movie critics (and with a lot of filmmakers, for that matter)? They’re on the lookout for eat-yer-peas movies while the rest of us are out for let’s-forget-for-awhile-that-we-have-to-eat-peas-at-all movies.

And that is the reason for the elitist head-scratching over the success of Paul Blart. The picture is built around a sympathetic and likable character you want to root for. The story is unique. (Well, it’s actually Die Hard without the gore and intensity, but we haven’t seen that story ripped off in a few years, so that’s unique enough.) The humor comes from the situation and the interactions among the people. Come to think of it, Paul Blart is a John Candy picture with Kevin James in the starring role. If you’ve seen Planes, Trains and Automobiles or Uncle Buck, you’ve seen this character and, essentially, this picture.

And that’s fine. There’s a reason we remember Uncle Buck and its ilk 20 years after release–and why we don’t remember, say, 1989’s “Eat A Bowl of Tea” and its cauldron of simmering emotion among first-generation male Chinese immigrants in their struggle to reconcile their wants and needs with the direct and indirect social pressures applied by their Chinatown neighbors.

See what I mean?

I like entertainment and I like art, too, but many movie-goers (and most critics) imagine that unless there’s some art to be found in a picture, the picture’s not worthwhile. They’re wrong. Exhibit A: The well-made, innocent, inoffensive, somewhat touching and entirely fine Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

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