Observe and Report (Dir: Jody Hill)

With "Observe and Report," director Jody Hill continues to create ballads to the emasculated and crazy. "The Foot Fist Way," Hill's choppy first effort, followed constantly cuckolded Tae Kwan Do instructor Fred Simmons (Danny McBride) and his delusional reach for greatness. "Eastbound and Down," Hill's recent HBO series, tells the story of the John Rocker-like Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) and his delusional quest to re-enter the majors well past his prime. "Observe and Report," featuring a cameo by Danny McBride, cranks up the violence and delusions and plays unlike any other recent comedy, excepting those from Jody Hill.

There is constant cruelty in Hill's work and the climaxes reach a fever pitch where extreme violence redeems the hero. Hill continuously humiliates his male leads who are oblivious to their incompetence and then redeems them through the exercising of their own worst natures fueled by their once pitiable craziness. He seems to always be having it both ways, destroying with cruelty giving the audience the laughs that come from superiority, but closes by giving them a hero to leave them happy. The world that pitied and laughed at the violent failures inevitably bends to their will and eventually honors them. You don't need medication. Just your dreams.

Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, and Jerry Lewis comedies tend to function this way as well, but Hill's view of the world is so much uglier and harsh making the laughs more bitter and the conclusions more confounding. ("Eastbound and Down" was more successfully realized, however, in its final moments, but the next to the last episode offers a weird, violent scene of redemption.) Hill does surround himself with talented casts and does successfully strip his actors down to the worst they can be, but to what end?

I liked "Observe and Report" to a point--Seth Rogen is compelling as a mall cop who mistakes life for a Michael Bay film and Anna Farris continues to shine no matter what material she's given--but its tone shifts are too sudden and false to allow the movie to resonate beyond its moment-to-moment shock comedy. The film will startle laughter, sympathy, and revulsion out of you, but for what? The film totally blows it in its uplifting final moments, but maybe by that point we're living in the fevered imagination of mall cop Ronnie Barnhardt. The movie shocked, but left me shrugging.