New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Seriously. WTF is wrong with you people?

Kim Hollis: Paul Blart: Mall Cop became the second biggest January opening ever with $33.8 million. WTF?

Tim Briody: My faith in humanity is shattered once again.

Scott Lumley: I did the BOP movie of the day for this one a while back, and it actually looked not bad from a dumb comedy perspective. I thought this had a shot at being a breakout film, but I honestly never thought it would pull in $33 million. Look on the bright side. At least a dog-centric film didn't take the top spot again.

Joel Corcoran: Every time I think that Hollywood might turn the corner and stop putting out crap like this, a piece of crap like this comes along and opens to over $30 million. What the hell were people thinking? When did Kevin James riding a Segway become comedy gold?

Brandon Scott: This means next to nothing to me. Hollywood has been putting out tripe along these lines for ages and America consistently turns out with the films raking in the dollars. This shocked industry expectations but truly should shock none of us. This is an indefensible offense.





Sean Collier: I think I've convinced them to stay away from Blart, but my parents - two intelligent, thoughtful, educated people - are huge Kevin James fans. They've seen him do stand-up, they've watched every episode of King of Queens, they wonder why everyone isn't in agreement on his merits. I think that whatever it is that he does resonates really well with suburban Americans in their 40s and 50s, and apparently that demographic was willing to turn out in force for a so-so looking comedy in the middle of winter. We also can't discount a counter-programming effect against a lot of heavy, dark Oscar contenders.

Jim Van Nest: I think Sean is on the right track with this one. It's Oscar season, so every "we have to take it very seriously" movie made in the last year is in theaters right now. Given that and the fact that everywhere you go now, you get nothing but depressing news over and over and over, I think people are/were ready for mindless comedy. I've been seeing the TV ads for weeks and even though I know the movie is going to be horrible...watching a fat guy bounce off a glass door is still funny and I'd rather spend money to see stupid stuff right now than the more serious films.

Reagen Sulewski: But, $33 million of funny? I'd understand The Love Guru making $33 million before this, since this seemed to not have even bothered with the jokes.

Daron Aldridge: Exactly, Reagen. I optimistically thought that we had moved beyond this with the flop of Disaster Movie. To build on Brandon's comment, sadly, Chris Farley (and John Candy before him in the 1980s) mined this same schtick-y route over ten years ago but without the one-liners. Fat guy (no offense, Mr. James) falling down, lather, rinse, repeat. All three are likable guys that I find funny but can fall into this rut of films that is ultimately unsatisfying. Hopefully, James can use this momentum to try something with fewer pratfalls.

Continued:       1       2       3       4