I have been extremely surprised by the overwhelming success of the Kevin James comedy Paul Blart: Mall Cop. The film just looks like your typical low-brow laugher, something that would appeal to the young male demographic and would earn in the $20 million to $30 million range.

But Mall Cop has been a huge hit ever since its mid-January release date. It was the number one movie in America for a couple of weeks, and has been in the top 10 for two months, which is very impressive. What’s more, the film will certainly go on to crack the $100 million mark, which practically guarantees there will be a sequel. Based on all of this “success”, I couldn’t help myself. I just had to go see the film to find out what all the fuss was about.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Kevin James stars as Paul Blart, a sad sack of a man whose life is full of failures. He still lives at home with his mom, his ex-wife married him just for a green card and then left as soon as she got it, and he has failed the state trooper physical fitness test seven times. So Paul settles for being a security guard at the local mall, riding around on a Segway to patrol the grounds.

It turns out that Paul is also infatuated with Amy (played by Jayma Mays), a woman who works at a hair weave kiosk in the mall. He tries to get up the courage to talk to her, but, as you would expect, becomes tongue-tied when around Amy and ends up making a fool of himself. It doesn’t help that a jerk pen salesman named Stuart (Stephen Rannazzisi) shows up on cue to further humiliate Paul in front of Amy. It’s clear that Stuart is interested in Amy himself, and really, there’s no contest between him and Paul.

Things get ugly on Black Friday when a band of robbers led by Veck Sims, a security guard trainee, take control of the mall. They clear out all of the shoppers, but keep a handful of employees, including Amy, as hostages while they carry out a plan to steal credit card authorization codes from all the stores. If successful, they’ll walk away with some $30 million.

What Veck doesn’t count on is having to deal with Paul Blart. Paul happened to be in an arcade when the criminals took over, so he was unnoticed. Paul has a chance to leave the building unscathed, but once he realizes that Amy is still inside, he decides to risk everything to try to save her.

My Reaction: Paul Blart: Mall Cop was pretty much what I expected it to be. It had a highly predictable plot full of ridiculous situations that never would happen in “real life” and went for cheap laughs over substantial humor — but was just entertaining enough for these problems not to be too much of an issue.

I’ve never been a big Kevin James fan before, but I thought he was decent in this. He made Paul Blart pathetic yet likable at the same time, and the audience was definitely rooting for him to pull through. I don’t know why, but it’s always somehow endearing when losers admit and accept that they’re losers, yet still maintain their sense of dignity and self-respect. Paul Blart never tries to be something that he’s not (except when he accidentally got drunk), so that made him a very sympathetic lead.

Sure, I could have done with fewer fat jokes and visual gags, but what else is a family comedy supposed to do? The only other problem I had with the movie was that the robbers’ plan wasn’t revealed until well into the mall takeover, so I was left to wonder what the hell they were doing for several scenes there.

Overall, Paul Blart: Mall Cop came off as a slightly better than average comedy. I’m sure some folks will absolutely hate it, but I think it’s at least watchable. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

When Beverly Hills Chihuahua was released last fall, I was surprised to see it become the No.1 movie of the weekend. However, I figured that was just a fluke due to lack of real competition. But when the film stayed at the top for several more weeks, I began to think that maybe there was some merit to it after all, despite what the professional critics and IMDb users said in their reviews. I didn’t go see the film in theaters, but rented it almost as soon as the DVD became available. Turns out the film wasn’t as bad as the dismal 2.7 rating on IMDb seems to imply.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Chloe the Chihuahua (voiced by Drew Barrymore) is a pampered Beverly Hills pooch owned by fashion diva Vivian (played by Jamie Lee Curtis). Chloe gets treated much better than most people do, and is the sort of dog who wears outfits and matching booties all the time, eats with their owner in restaurants, has birthday parties with doggie friends, rides around in oversized Louis Vuitton handbags, and gets regular spa treatments.

Things all change when Vivian must suddenly go to Paris on business, deciding to leave Chloe entrusted to the care of her niece Rachel (Piper Perabo). As soon as Vivian is out of the way, the irresponsible Rachel immediately discards all of her instructions and packs Chloe up for a weekend in Mexico with a few of Rachel’s friends. Rachel is so consumed by partying and having fun that she neglects Chloe’s needs, prompting the dog to escape from their hotel room to try to find a decent meal on her own.

Chloe, who wears an expensive Harry Winston diamond necklace as a collar, is a prime target for local dognappers, who bring the pooch to a dog fighting operation, of all places. Chloe manages to escape with the help of a German Shepherd named Delgado (voiced by Andy Garcia), but not before attracting the notice of a man in the crowd, who immediately realizes that Chloe could be worth a lot in terms of ransom money. The man sets his scary Doberman El Diablo (voiced by Edward James Olmos) on Chloe’s trail, and tracks the action with a GPS device.

The rest of the film then shows how Chloe tries to make her way back to Beverly Hills with Delgado’s help. El Diablo is never far behind, and constantly puts the other two dogs in dangerous situations. Meanwhile, Rachel, aided by Vivian’s landscaper Sam (Manolo Cardona), try to follow Chloe’s trail and catch up to the dog before Aunt Viv returns from Paris.

My Reaction: Okay, so maybe Beverly Hills Chihuahua isn’t going to win any Oscars, but it wasn’t as completely horrible as you might think given the overwhelmingly negative reactions to the film. I thought it was entertaining in a mindless, sit-back-and-enjoy-the-popcorn kind of way. Drew Barrymore and Andy Garcia were both great as the main voice actors, and though the plot was predictable, at least the script moved things right along and didn’t veer off into unnecessary tangents along the way. There were just a couple of slow spots; otherwise nearly every single scene was relevant to the main plot.

I’ve been trying to figure out why the IMDb average rating is just 2.7 stars…. I can think of several films that were much worse than Beverly Hills Chihuahua in terms of entertainment value, but that have a higher rating on that site. Of course, I know by now not to base my movie viewing decisions on what IMDb users think, but still, it’s kind of puzzling that this film rates so low.

Overall, if you want to see a fun little movie that the whole family can enjoy, you could do a lot worse than Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Frankly, between this and the last film I saw (Two Lovers, which is already receiving awards buzz), I’d much rather sit through Beverly Hills Chihuahua again! I give it 3 stars out of 5.