( CNN ) -- Ronnie Barnhardt ( Seth Rogen ) has a dream . It is , he likes to think , an American dream . Seth Rogen goes on patrol as a mall cop in `` Observe and Report . '' Only Ronnie 's dream involves looming clouds of cancer , screaming children and loaded shotguns . In his dream he vanquishes evil , disperses the dark clouds and accepts the gratitude that is rightly bestowed on the lawman . He believes his destiny is to be a cop . In reality , he 's chief security officer at the mall . I know : You already saw this movie : `` Paul Blart : Mall Cop . '' Kevin James . Box-office smash . No jokes to speak of . You 're only half wrong . There are strong similarities between `` Blart '' and Rogen 's film , `` Observe and Report . '' Both movies are portraits of chubby guys who do n't fit the profile and ca n't make the grade . Both men are socially inept , they live with their moms and hold a crush on a sales assistant who should be out of their league ( here , the fearlessly nasty Anna Faris ) . They 're also delusional enough to equate a badge and a uniform with their own heroic self-image , though in their heart of hearts they know they wo n't be real men until they 're packing a gun . `` Observe and Report '' is the R-rated version of this peculiar suburban fantasy , a much edgier movie that dares to keep its mall cop at arm 's length . Just because he 's sad and pathetic , that does n't mean Ronnie is n't a potential psychopath . He 's closer to Travis Bickle than to cuddly Kevin James . This may be the first time Rogen has stepped out of his comfort zone as an actor . With his hair cropped to a Marine buzz , and cutting out the winks and the wisecracks ( Ronnie has no sense of humor ) , Rogen refuses to soften us up or apologize for the character 's low IQ . The movie is funnier for his control , and also more disturbing . More than once , writer-director Jody Hill teases out the slippy , gray area between a subversive gross-out gag and something unsettlingly misogynist . He wants to push buttons , and he 's talented enough to get away with it . At one point he sets up a scene in which Ronnie learns he 's flunked his psych test for the police force . While he 's still processing this latest rejection , a detective emerges from his hiding place in the closet . `` I thought this was going to be funny , '' he explains sheepishly . `` But it 's just sad . '' Played that way , the scene is both . Plainly influenced by the observational embarrassments of TV 's `` The Office , '' Hill took an equally jaundiced view of the male animal in his first film , `` The Foot Fist Way , '' a low-budget black comedy with Danny McBride as a gung-ho martial arts instructor . ( McBride pops up here as a violent crack dealer . ) Machismo is about the only source of pride Hill 's anti-heroes can afford . The budget for `` Observe and Report '' is probably 20 times what Hill had to spend on his debut , but his characters have stayed on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder ; they may fancy themselves above it all , but they know where the bottom is . So it makes a kind of sense that when a flasher starts terrorizing the mall , Ronnie should seize on this as his opportunity to shine . `` That pervert is the best thing that ever happened to me , '' he says . The flasher 's eventual full-frontal appearance supplies the movie with a suitably in-your-face climax , as well as extending contemporary film comedy 's undeclared mission to domesticate the male organ . Ever since `` Borat '' -- in `` Knocked Up '' and `` Forgetting Sarah Marshall '' and `` Superbad '' -- it seems like there 's nothing funnier than a penis on the loose . iReport.com : What do you think of `` Observe and Report '' ? But it 's the naked anger Rogen and Hill reveal that makes `` Observe and Report '' a sticky proposition . It 's consistently sharper and wittier than `` Mall Cop , '' but Hill 's disconcerting habit of making his biggest laughs stick in your throat could prove a hard sell . It 's no `` Paul Blart , '' but is it art ? `` Observe and Report '' is rated R and runs 86 minutes . For Entertainment Weekly 's review , click here .
` ` Watch and Report '' is another movie about a mall officer , but oh , does it cut deeply . Seth Green stars as a frustrated mall officer wanting bigger things . The movie is funny -- and occasionally disturbing .