Film

Vegas is the only bright spot in ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2’

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Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

One and a half stars

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 Kevin James, Raini Rodriguez, Neal McDonough. Directed by Andy Fickman. Rated PG. Now playing.

Six years after the surprise success of Paul Blart: Mall Cop, it’s a little hard to believe that anyone still cares about the sequel. It’s the essence of what writer Nathan Rabin of The Dissolve calls a “forgotbuster,” a movie that made a ton of money when it was first released and has since become entirely irrelevant. But here anyway we have Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, notable also for being the first major production to take advantage of the fledgling Nevada tax-incentive program to film in Las Vegas.

And boy, did they film in Las Vegas. Somewhere around 97 percent of the movie takes place inside the Wynn and Encore hotel-casinos (complete with wordless cameo from Steve Wynn himself), with just a few establishing helicopter shots of the rest of the city, and one brief moment of the title character wandering the Strip. For those who haven’t caught up on the modern masterpiece that is the first Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Blart (Kevin James) is a bumbling security officer at a New Jersey mall who somehow managed to thwart a heist. Six years later, he gets invited to a security conference in Las Vegas, and wouldn’t you know it, another attempted heist is going on right at the hotel where he’s staying.

Like the first movie, Mall Cop 2 suffers from indifferent plotting and apathetic jokes that often don’t appear to have punchlines. James (who co-wrote the screenplay) subjects himself to endless fat jokes and pratfalls, which aren’t even funny the first time, let alone the 10th. The “action” is as listless as the humor, and the villains’ evil scheme makes no sense. The family-friendly PG rating means that all the violence is eerily consequence-free, and the edgiest gag involves Blart accidentally punching an old lady in the stomach. At this rate, Blart’s next adventure could be a Disney Channel original.

Although the movie has the visual sophistication of a local commercial, it does serve as a wide-ranging showcase for the Wynn, including the shops, the hotel rooms, Italian restaurant Bartolotta, production show Le Reve and even one of the gardens (where Blart gets attacked by an exotic bird in a bit that seems to last for hours). Whatever strings Wynn had to pull to get his hotel a starring role in the movie, it was worth it. Next time, though, he could try aiming a little higher.

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