In one scene, Blart is kicked by a horse into the side of a car, though as far as I could tell, none of those three objects was actually present for the stunt. In a film this reliant on slapstick, it’s disappointing how much of the physical comedy isn’t physical at all, but computer-generated, or at least augmented. The familiar neon glamour of the Las Vegas strip is mostly forgone for an over-lit, air-conditioned purgatory of corridors and conference rooms.įor around half an hour, Blart frets about his daughter’s blossoming friendship with a young waiter, spying on them unconvincingly then, when both are kidnapped by an international art thief who happens to be ransacking the very casino in which they’re staying, he switches back into Mall Cop mode, tools up with Home Alone-like weapons from the conference floor (glue gun, pocket taser, et cetera), and trundles into action. This is Dad’s time to shine.Īnd shine he does, with a bright and queasy gleam. There’ll be a good time to tell him, she surmises: just not right now, when they’re about to take a trip to Nevada together for a security-guard conference at which Blart imagines he’ll be asked to give a speech. The only meaningful relationship he has left in the world is with his teenage daughter Maya (Raini Rodriguez), who has, unbeknown to her father, just been accepted for a college course on the other side of the country. In order to transform Blart back into a needy loner, his wife (Jayma Mays) and elderly mother (Shirley Knight) are unceremoniously rubbed out in the film’s opening seconds: the latter is run over by a milk float, which is mildly amusing, if perhaps a touch brutal for very young viewers.
This mostly unlonged-for sequel sees him falling over in a Las Vegas casino instead, where the floors are shinier, the Segways a little slinkier, and the comedy as inert as ever. In the original 2009 film, Kevin James stepped out of Adam Sandler’s shadow for the role of a lifetime: a Segway-riding security guard at a suburban shopping centre who falls over a lot.
Eight seconds of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 – a moderately violent headbutt and a couple of threatening knife-twirls – were cut in order to secure the film a PG certificate for its British release, so the film may never be screened on these shores in all its unexpurgated glory.