Thing 1, my older son, asked specifically to see Paul Blart, Mall Cop for one of our Family Friday Movie Nights, and I thought it was worth losing eighty-seven minutes of my life to make my son happy. Then he spent most of the movie hiding in various other rooms, since he really doesn't like emotional conflict of any kind. (Remind me to tell you the story of how he had a love-hate relationship with Thomas the Tank Engine at the age of three, since the trains were mean to each other. For that matter, remind me to tell you how I'd leave the room myself at about his age when the Star Trek re-runs got too much to handle. Genetics can pick up the things you never wanted to pass on to your kids.)Mall Cop is a paint-by-numbers loser-shows-his-worth action comedy aimed at tweens, and I refuse to spend more than the time spent during the movie thinking about its plot. It's not bad, given what it is, but it's not in any way a "good movie," either. It's a cynical slab of entertainment that succeeds on its own terms, primarily because those terms are so low. And, yes, all of the funny moments are in the trailer -- the first half of the movie is slow and dull.
The most interesting thing about Mall Cop is that I could swear that it was actually filmed not at the "West Orange Pavilion Mall" -- which doesn't exist -- but at that mall near the Readercon hotel. But I don't care enough to check.
1 comment:
Good eye. It was filmed at that mall near the Readercon hotel, also known as the Burlington Mall, which gave its name to Burlington Mall Road, which is where the Readercon Hotel (aka the Burlington Marriott) sits.
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