Paul Blart: Mall Cop

After playing the lovable patsy in Hitch and long-running US sitcom The King of Queens, Kevin James retains his amiable buffoon character here, as a gauche mall cop with ambitions to be a state trooper. This time, however, the jokes, like the man, are much broader. Acting the tough guy on a two-wheeled electric scooter and suffering from hyperglycemia (which makes him fall asleep when he's low on sugar), James finds it hard to impress the girl of his dreams (played by a bored-looking Jayma Mays). And his bumbling exploits are just as uninspiring for anyone else watching the film until the plot bursts into some sort of life with the arrival of a gang of acrobatic robbers that lays siege to the mall. At least, James provides some fun spoofing action flicks like Die Hard by doing a lot of running, jumping and getting stuck in an air vent. Thankfully, the fat gags aren't too cruel and his boundless enthusiasm makes him easy to root for. It's just a shame the film takes so long for his slapstick talents to shine.