Is Seth Rogen/Jody Hill’s (the director behind “The Fist Foot Way”) next film, “Observe & Report” in trouble? CHUD has a report that says the film is funny, but the apparently edgy film (Rogen’s character is darker, and a racist asshole) left some audiences in a recent L.A. test screening, “feeling cold.”
Apparently some of the humor is very off-color in the vein of “Bad Santa,”and one very “non-PC type,” said that some of the jokes made “even him uncomfortable” (though he apparently loved this).
We’re not totally surprised, “The Fist Foot Way,” had some really ugly comedy in it too, but we thought that film fell totally flat in the end with too few jokes (it was 20-minute short at best and kept regurgitating the same idea over ad nauseum – and we love Danny McBride too!). “Bad Santa” is pretty awesome is crude and vulgar way, but we’re not sold on Hill just yet. Will the studio blanch? It’s too early to tell, but CHUD’s report almost reads like a preemptive strike on studio cold-feet.
“Observe and Report” centers on Ronnie Barnhardt (Rogen), a deluded, self-important head of mall security who squares off in a turf war against the local cops (ugh, we hope it’s nothing like Kevin James’ upcoming, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” which looks godawful) Hill wrote the screenplay.
The film also stars Anna Faris (“Scary Movie”), Ray Liotta (“Goodfellas”), Michael Pena “(Crash”), Collette Wolfe (“The House Bunny”) and Jesse Plemons (“Friday Night Lights”).