The fact that Observe and Report is relentlessly funny, and not simply grotesquely offensive, is a testament to the comedic talents onboard--director Jody Hill reprises the deadpan, detail-oriented tone he created in The Foot Fist Way, while actors like Patton Oswalt and Human Giant's Aziz Ansari make welcome cameos. It's star Seth Rogen, though, who injects the film with its improbable levity. By all rights, his mall cop character Ronnie Barnhardt is a dimwitted, gun-obsessed, casually racist sociopath who should be completely repellent--yet he is, at times, oddly charming, even when he's shooting smack in one of the mall's bathroom stalls. by Alison Hallett