“I thought this was gonna be funny, but it’s just kind of sad,” says one character at about the midpoint of Observe and Report. A line like that in a comedy that has not been making me laugh is usually something I treat as a gift from the god of snark.

In the case of this self-described “dark comedy,” though, it seems more like a clue, or maybe a poke in the eye of viewers who gave the ticketseller their money expecting to see Seth Rogen as Paul Blart. Instead, mall security officer Ronnie Barnhardt is a socially maladjusted misfit—with a host of developmental problems hinted at during drunken outbursts from his trailer-trash mother—who wants to step up to a stronger power base than one limited to tasering shoplifters. Rogen’s inherently clownish appearance and Ronnie’s pathetic inability to relate to the world are all that keep this from being a horror movie, especially as it becomes what can only be described as a parody of Taxi Driver involving a mall flasher. Along the way is a gallery of equally unpleasant characters, including Ray Liotta as the police detective whom Ronnie views as a rival, Michael Pena as a lisping mall deputy, and Anna Faris in a ridiculously broad turn as the trashy blonde slut who catches Ronnie’s eye. (If you feel that Hollywood has foolishly failed to explore the subject of date rape as a source of big yuks, this is the movie for you.) There’s even one pleasant one, a pretty coffee counter clerk who takes an implausible shine to Ronnie and who seems to function to make sure we don’t become inured to the pain of watching the rest of the movie. The perp—er, auteur behind this is writer-director Jody Hill, whose no-budget 2006 debut film, The Foot Fist Way, won him the support of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. His two films and his HBO sitcom Eastbound & Down are all about machismo stretched to the point where it becomes sociopathic, like Farrell vehicles taken to the extreme. He clearly doesn’t want us to like these characters, which I suppose is a relief. But why he expects us to spend any of our time in their company I couldn’t begin to guess.

—m. faust

Watch the trailer for Observe and Report