Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 Review

Directed By: Andy Fickman

Written By: Kevin James, Nick Bakay

Starring: Kevin James, Neal McDonough, Raini Rodriguez, Shirley Knight, Eduardo Verastegui,

This is a family movie set in glitzy Las Vegas to showcase good versus evil and or society over money. Where greed and corruption never wins but hard work and humility does. For instance, Paul Blart (Kevin James) vs. Vincent Sofel (Neal McDonough) and his team. Predictable, typecast roles and should have been pleasantly surprising. Sadly they never took a risk in that direction.

Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 should not be funny or be considered art yet it works. As a sequel it was surprisingly better than the first film. There were some cheesy antics that fit the location and characters perfectly, which lessens the ratings. The piano playing man who does not help him as a random Ostrich fights him is pretty unrealistic and serves no purpose.

As a movie this either makes jokes at Paul or presents him as arrogant and that is supposed to count for something. It is funny but could have been funnier. If it hit people’s heartstrings like right where it hurts and made them laugh about their mistakes and flaws it would have been amazing.

To cover real issues on a deeper level is to make it a more serious dark comedy more suitable for adults. The audience and main characters all deserve respect and recognition not to just laugh at issues and discuss them but slide by them because it is the elephant in the room that should not be discussed or be seen as comedy material.

Overall message is magnetic but was not delivered well because it is undermining of the main characters in a tired plot with many predictable outcomes. Where the unexpected scenes are just random and irrelevant. The score of this movie is 6/10. Most of the jokes were lame and did not induce laughter. Fun movie but should have utilized the location and the characters more.

Aloha

Written and directed by: Cameron Crowe

Starring: Alec Baldwin, Bill Murray, Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, John Krasinski and Danny McBride.

Terribly Tiring Time-taker

Cameron Crowe does amazing movies. However, ‘Aloha’ is not one of them. Still great but knowing this is a Cameron Crowe film knowing what he is capable of a lot more was expected of him. This movie deserves a 5/10 because it is an average movie. Not bad or good just plain particularly with the pacing. It is definitely dreadful to be as dull as it is.

This movie lacked depth, coherency and creativity. The movie is just a mismatched mesh of gibberish pseudo-philosophical romantic notions. The plot’s passé and archaic that is far from romantic. It is really tragic and not in a ‘titanic’ sort of way but more of a pathetic or poor attempt. The movie’s heart is in the right place but it is just disorganized and feels some parts were left out whether on purpose or not.

This movie passes many ideas while not fully grasping them. It is trying to be too many things at once in a forced unnatural way. It needed have a better story line that is less predictable and not filled with nonsense irrelevant Hawaiian mythology and shallowly presented patriotism.

That is just to appear light hearted and deep as if without trying. This movie was anything but subtle, but could have been. Cameron Crowe created the organic, effortless ‘Almost Famous’. Then later on he created, ‘We bought a Zoo’ so he will surely redeem himself in many movies to come.

Confused characters that make no sense in an odd miscast, love-triangle. The love does not seem real or even present. As if the lines are just memorized and are just said with no emotion or if there is an angry seen there is no remorse, which makes it like the characters are forced to be there and not that they want to be there. That combination of love-hate was even missing from that clichéd plot and the writing is redundant. This makes it difficult to understand and even sit through this movie.

For a movie about Hawaii it sure is missing a lot of Hawaiian elements. The meaning of ‘Aloha’ is not portrayed during this movie that lacked what it means to be Hawaiian it is just a poor portrayal coming from non-natives. The title should have been ‘land of one’ yet still that would be irrelevant.

A movie about Hawaii must show more about Hawaiian people. Emma Stone should have been cast as an Expat or something not one-quarter Hawaiian. Had the word ‘Ohana’ been explained there would have more meaning to the movie as a whole rather than the random Hawaiian folklore that is continuously represented through a child. Pearls of wisdom from the young are a bit of a stretch if not far-fetched.