Well, I totally agree with the CommonSense review. I laughed quite a lot at this movie, but some of the funniest part also made me feel very uncomfortable. Hubby and I both have a very dark sense of humor, and so we technically enjoyed the movie, but I was definitely not left with a feeling that anything was resolved to any moral or ethical satisfaction. The sex scene referenced in the review was indeed uncomfortable in some ways because you know that the girl is passed out, and regardless of her slurred "consent," is too doped up to truly realize the possible consequences of the sex. However, the part that disturbed me most was not the questionable consent or ethics on sex while drunk or with a drunk, but the part that truly bothered me was the disgusting aspects. Since it is part of the punchline in some ways I won't give anything more away, but I'll just say that the most discomfort for me originated in the outright gross areas, and I am someone with a fairly strong stomach for "regular" nasty stuff. This movie pushed more limits in showing a nadir of human behavior IMO, mainly because you know that while exaggerated for thematic and comedic effect, there are people who stoop this low out there. DEFINITELY NOT FOR CHILDREN--to use my own parenting style/method and standards, I would NOT allow my daughter to see this at all until she is 16+ -- if not 18. lol
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Observe and Report
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Is it age appropriate?
About our ratings(Flash is loading. If this text does not disappear you need to install the latest flash version)
Not age appropriate for kids under 17, age appropriate for kids over 18; suggested age 17. -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
Dark, disturbing comedy is for adults only.
Why We Rated This 
What to watch out for
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Violence:
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Sex:
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Language:
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Consumerism:
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Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
What Parents Need to Know
About Observe and Report
Parents need to know that while this dark, disturbing comedy may be funny, it's very different from star Seth Rogen's other R-rated raunchfests. It has all of the language, strong sexual content (including full-frontal male nudity), drinking, and drug use of Judd Apatow-style comedies but doesn't have any of their underlying heart. Plus, it has some scenes of brutal violence and a sex scene in which the main female character is so drunk that the encounter could easily be seen as an assault. While mature teens and grown-ups will likely understand that the main character isn't being presented as a hero, it's still not appropriate for young people.
Read our full review by James Rocchi
Families Can Talk About
- Families can talk about how the movie links violence and comedy. Why are some of the violent scenes funny? Do you think everyone would find them funny? What's the impact of seeing violent images in the media? Families can also discuss how the movie portrays the drunken sex scene. How did that scene make you feel? Do you think moments like that should be treated as comedy? How is this movie different from Seth Rogen's other films? Which do you like better?
Our Members Say
Most Recent Reviews
- I rate this title on for age 17 and give itMy concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Negative role models
Very funny, yet also very disturbing--ADULTS ONLY
- I rate this title off for age 17 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
not the best
This movie is an adult movie only! It had some funny scenes in it but overall it wasn't amazing. There was a naked man flashing people, cleavage, a sex scene, drinking, violence, and language.
- I rate this title off for age 17 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
not the best
This movie is an adult movie only! It had some funny scenes in it but overall it wasn't amazing. There was a naked man flashing people, cleavage, a sex scene, drinking, violence, and language.
- I rate this title off for age 16 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Negative role models
All around terrible movie
Language is totally excessive...
- I rate this title on for age 13 and give it
- My highlights are:
only for mature kids but nothing under teens
it is funny and provocotive but it has its moments
- I rate this title iffy for age 15 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Negative role models
Just... Just no, NO parents, NO!
I liked this movie and found it funny and gripping. No parent in their right mind should ever knowingly let their child (teens debatable) watch this.
- I rate this title off for age 17 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Negative role models
Very Dark but very funny!
I'll start of my review by saying... THIS MOVIE IS NOT FOR ANYONE UNDER THE AGE OF 17!!! I found the movie to be very funny, but since it's a dark comedy it is not for all taste. There is a lot of sexual content since the plot involves a cop trying to catch a flasher along with some graphic nudity (espically near the end of the film) and a date rape scene which some may find offensive. Theres a lot of strong profanity throught including many uses of the F word. There is some violence in the film but most of it isn't graphic besides the one shooting at the end. The chracters are deffintly not good role models either as they do drugs and drink on the job, steal, and beat up kids. It's deffintly not a kids movie but if you like dark comedy you should find it very funny.
- I rate this title on for age 17 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- I rate this title off for age 17 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Excessive consumerism
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Negative role models
- I rate this title off for age 17 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Negative role models
Funny Movie
- I rate this title iffy for age 13 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- I rate this title on for age 17 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Excessive consumerism
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
i love that move
Lives in FloridaI rate this title iffy for age 16 and give itMy concerns are:- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- I rate this title off for age 17 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
Paul Blart watch out, Rogen’s here to MURDER YOU
Ronnie Barnhart is a bi-polar mall cop, who has an alcoholic mother, has a crush on a designer store clerk (Farris), and goes above the law to get justice. Just when he thought nothing was ever go wrong, his mall is attacked by a flasher, and a person who he cares deeply about, gets sexually assaulted by him. Now it’s his time for him to bring the true hero out of him and save the day without the help from police In February (as we all know) the PG version of Mall Cop (Paul Blart) opened. 2 months later the version made for adults opens, and it was well worth the wait. Given the fact that I idolize Seth Rogen, and thinks he can do nothing wrong, I came to see this with high hopes and I got everything I expected. At first I wasn’t really opened to the concept of “An R Rated version of Paul Blart” but it really paid off. Seth Rogen fits his character perfectly. He’s a mean, lean fighting machine with a sense of heart inside. In one scene he almost made me cry, but a scene of comic relief came up after. The rest of the supporting cast such as Anna Farris, Ray Liotta (as the cop), and Michael Pena (As brilliant as he ever is) were also hysterically well casted. Ronnie spends most of his time being a bad role model. His tactics are violent and he plays sort of a younger version of Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. He beats up skate borders, suspects an immigrant of stealing because of his race, drinks and takes drugs to help him medicate. These aren’t really positive messages for viewers of any age, but it’s a Dark R rated comedy. What could you expect from that? Observe and Report is a dark and surprisingly hilarious comedy that’s not made from the Apatow group. It’s raunchy, violent, offensive and off-putting at times but that’s Seth Rogen humor so if you don’t like it, then happily Adam Sandler is making a lot of movies for you. Rogen proves to us once again that he is the man and he could do absolutely nothing wrong. It’s a different role for him because he sort of plays a more darker and dramatic character than he normally does. When it was over I and a few of the audience members applauded, and it turns out after reading so many negative reviews, many seemed to like it. Beware if you aren’t looking to be offended, put down or just not into Rogen humor you’re better off seeing Monsters vs. Aliens instead. For fans you won’t be disappointed by this quirky and inventive dark comedy
- I rate this title iffy for age 16 and give itMy concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
With the success of the Foot Fist Way, about a mean-spirited karate instructor, writer/director Jody Hill makes his new film Observe and Report which shares one similar characteristic to Foot Fist Way, a dysfunctional and psychotic protagonist. Seth Rogen gives the performance of his career in his best film to date as Ronnie Barnhardt, a racist, bipolar, egotistic, violent, brave, and, surprisingly, kind-hearted overweight mall cop. In Observe and Report, a flasher has exposed himself to several women at a shopping mall and Ronnie views this as his opportunity to prove his 'greatness' by bringing the man responsible to justice. Taking advantage of the situation, Ronnie tricks a recent victim of the flasher, Brandi (Anna Farris), to have dinner with him. Following the dinner, is a sex scene which could be viewed as date rape due to the fact that Brandi is drunk, drugged-up from pills, and partially unconscious. Even a scene such as this that deals with a disturbing matter is turned into comedy when Ronnie momentarily stops his thrusting to check if Brandi is okay and Brandi responds by exclaiming, "Why are you stopping motherfucker!" This scene is one of the prime examples of the magic of this film in that it always kept me in a confused state as to whether or not to laugh uproariously or feel shocked. Another unconventional moment occurs when an actual police officer, Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta), drops off Ronnie in a rough neighborhood as a practical joke and to teach him a lesson in that being a mall cop is not the same as being an actual police officer. When Ronnie is confronted by a group of muscular crack-dealers, I was again perplexed as to whether or not to be appalled by how brutally Ronnie defeats them or laugh at how the situation turned against Harrison and fed more to Ronnie's ego. However, no matter how big Ronnie's ego is or how he always uses violence as the means to serving justice, I always felt sympathetic towards him. I think this sense of sympathy came from how well-intentioned Ronnie is, how alienated he feels, and his genuine ability to love. This feeling was illustrated in a scene where Detective Harrison plays a cruel joke on Ronnie by putting his hopes up in becoming an actual police officer and then telling him that he did not make the cut. Before Harrison gives Ronnie the bad new, another officer hides in the closet so he can have a laugh at how the pathetic mall cop has his hopes crushed. However when Harrison actually gives Ronnie the news, the police officer comes out of the closet, ashamed, stating, "I thought this was gonna be funny, but it's actually kind of sad." The film's balance of comedy and sadness carries and builds itself to its psychotic climax that would be completely implausible in another comedy, but it makes only perfect sense in Observe and Report because it is only reasonable to Ronnie's psychosis.
- I rate this title off for age 17 and give itMy concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
i don't get your review commonsensemedia you say this is a dark disturbing film but it's not dark it's lighthearted and silly the violence really isn't that bad come on if you scene an action film in the last hundred years the violence won't bother you. the language may actually beat pulp fiction for most f words ever said onscreen especially the one scene with the indain dude plus the sex is mostly two sex scenes and the sequence at the end where the flasher is shown for like 90 seconds in slow motion which is disgusting
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Ratings at a Glance
| 89% | of parents don't think the messages are positive |
| 89% | of parents say there's too much drinking, drugs, or smoking |
| 78% | of parents say it has language their kids can't use |
| 78% | of parents say it's too violent |
| 78% | of parents say the sexual behavior isn't age appropriate |
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