Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 is an average comedy film that the whole family can enjoy.
The story begins with tragedy, when our hero Paul Blart, played by Kevin James, is left by his wife of six days and his mother is run over by a milk truck. That’s right, a milk truck.
Those two misfortunes leave Blart in a very vulnerable state. So when he is invited to a security conference for mall cops in Las Vegas, he is happy. Blart and his daughter, Maya, the only person he has left in the world, go to the conference.
Kevin James rides a scooter in the second installment of the Mall Cop franchise.
While they are there, a gang of thieves enters their hotel with plans to steal all the fine art. Maya accidentally sees something she shouldn’t and is kidnapped.
It is up to Blart, with the help of some of his friends, to rescue Maya and stop the heist.
The film has a lot of positive elements. James does a wonderful job portraying Paul Blart, a character who is as good as he is inept.
He quite honestly is the best part of the whole film.
Another thing that is good about the film is that it is wholesome. Unlike most of today’s comedies, it does not rely on vulgarity and shock over humor to entertain.
It’s clean and has some very funny moments. It’s a film almost any parent would be comfortable taking their kids to.
The movie at times feels childish, however, because it is so silly. Silliness is necessary in a comedy, but there comes a point when it no longer is funny and is just crazy.
Another problem with this film is that it is corny at times, especially when it comes to Blart’s relationship with his daughter, Maya, played by Raini Rodriguez as in the first Mall Cop film.
An important subplot in the movie is that Maya has been accepted to UCLA and wants to leave her father and move across the country.
The filmmakers try to use that situation to teach an emotional and important lesson about parenting.
It just comes across as cliché, however, which neither tugs on the heart or teaches anything new. It just awkwardly stands out as a serious subject in a not-so-serious movie.
The movie also is predictable. Much of the plot points and jokes are easy to foresee, and there is hardly anything that is surprising.
Mall Cop 2 is a difficult movie to review. It is neither extremely good nor terribly bad. It is just average.
My friend who went with me to see the movie summed it up best when he said, “It was better than doing homework.”
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