- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
91The superb character actor Celia Weston (In the Bedroom) is truly breathtaking as Ronnie's boozer mom.
-
90Observe and Report is the rare "action-comedy" (almost always a muddled hybrid) that earns its cathartic climax. The blood is real because the psychosis is real. But somehow--the magic of comedy--it's also uproarious.
-
88You can't root for Ronnie. You can't identify with him. You can't hope he gets the girl – any girl. But you may want to look on with stunned fascination as he ticks away, ready to explode.
-
80In a genuinely brave performance, Seth Rogen sheds his frat-boy comic styling and delivers an unflinching portrayal.
-
75Funny as hell.
-
75Admirable for venturing into very dark places rarely glimpsed in big-studio comedies.
-
75As funny as it is sick (and it's plenty of both).
-
75Funnier than the silliest comedy because it's surprisingly real.
-
75Some movies strive to give you that warm, fuzzy feeling, and some strive to make you bawl your eyes out, but Observe and Report strives to make you feel ambivalent, confused, and a little bit dirty, and whether or not you find that enjoyable, it's not something you likely feel very often.
-
75It falls short of brilliant but it's a lot more daring than what passes for "dark comedy" these days, and it reminds us that "feel bad" comedies may not always be as funny as "feel good" ones but, when they work, they can ultimately be more satisfying.
-
75The random and unpredictable nature makes it an extremely interesting film to watch.
-
75This is one of those comedies where the humor lies in the audacity of tone and character rather than any particular sight gag or one-liner. Same with "The Foot Fist Way," which is absolutely worth your rental dollar.
-
70While it stops before sliding too far into the darkness,Observe and Report hits a lot of bull's-eyes by aiming for the gut, not easy belly laugh.
-
70A feel-good ending is mandatory, even in a comedy like this, which promises to be transgressive because it's the first major-studio job for a director with an underground reputation for being crazy-bold.
-
70Ronnie is more complex, and much scarier, than the kind of self-deluding boob auds usually encounter in comedies of this sort. With the invaluable aid of Rogen, who's never been better, Hill sustains an impressive degree of tension between seemingly contradictory elements.
-
67Something of a cross between the formalist whimsy of Wes Anderson and the God's-lonely-man psychosis of "Taxi Driver," the film breaks all the rules, but the tonal schizophrenia that results isn't an accident.
-
67The movie, starring Rogen as a mall cop with anger management issues, is essentially a goony romp flecked with disturbing eruptions of violence.
-
63Where "Mall Cop" is broad, safe and sticks to a formula, Observe and Report is unabashedly crude, cynical, off-kilter and funnier.
-
63This new movie is crazier, scarier, funnier, and more bewildering. It's the strangest movie I expect to see from a Hollywood studio for the rest of the year.
-
60An odd one. Rogen's latest clown is an angry, confused man who you never feel entirely comfortable laughing at. There are laughs -- you'll just feel guilty afterwards...
-
60Broad but thin and more bleak than uproarious--a humorously downsized homage to foundational '70s classics like "Dirty Harry" and, especially, "Taxi Driver."
-
Barring a Terry Zwigoff return to "Bad Santa" territory, it's hard to imagine a filmmaker embracing this dubious hero to the extent writer-director Jody Hill does.
-
50There's about 10 good minutes out of 85.
-
50Observe and Report conveys an essential truth about Rogen: Like every other actor on the planet, he needs good material to do good work.
-
50One of those comedies that is more peculiar than actually funny.
-
50What's meant (I think) to be a "f*** you" to action-movie conventions reads instead as a "f*** you" to the audience. Observe and Report tickets should come with a free breath mint, because however hard you've been laughing, that ending leaves a seriously bad taste in your mouth.
-
Bobs and weaves between gross-out comedy and violent psychosexual drama, ultimately sliding into parody.
-
Cruel, unfunny and yet somehow perversely fascinating.
-
40Midway through, a character remarks as he leaves the scene of a takedown of Ronnie, "I thought this was going to be funny, but it's just kind of sad." The same thing is true about the movie as a whole.
-
30Yes, the "Taxi Driver" parallels are intentional: Hill spells them out in the press notes, all but branding Observe and Report a Scorsesefied remake that reeks of stale Cinnabon.
-
30I've observed this Seth Rogen comedy, and I can report that it's not very good.
-
25This film isn't the most awful comedy of the year (that would be Bride Wars or New in Town), but it may have the grossest antihero.
-
10It's possible Hill has a style, of sorts. But he doesn't work from the heart, or from the gut, as a good comedy director generally needs to. He operates from one guiding question: "How disturbing can we make this sh**?"
-
It heaps piles of bad, crazy stuff at our feet then walks away. There is no moral to this story, and there's not much comedy either.
-
10If you thought Abu Ghraib was a laugh riot then you might love Observe and Report, a potentially brilliant conceptual comedy that fizzles because its writer and director, Jody Hill, doesn't have the guts to go with his spleen.
prev
next
Page:
- 1
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 20 out of 44
-
Mixed: 7 out of 44
-
Negative: 17 out of 44
-
MichaelF10Absolutely hilarious. A bipolar hero? I was rooting for him!