The Snooze Button

Observed Seth Rogen in “Observe and Report” last night at a preview and am busy writing my report. Am not supposed to spill the beans on content until Friday, but if you like Kenny Powers, and to a lesser degree Fred Simmons, you’ll probably like Rogen’s Ronnie Barnhardt and his retarded antics.

I can, however, use this opportunity to comment on Metacritic, and not because it flouts the unspoken agreement against bean spilling before the opening. Worse, it assigns an overall ranking based on a limited number of reviews. Not only could this mislead the public, but probably influences other critics, no offense to fellow critics, unless you are the influenceable kind. Imagine you just saw the movie, and look on Metacritic to find a big 80 percent average score. You might take that to mean everyone else loves it, without noticing the score is only based on a few reviews (as of Wednesday April 8 anyway). Metacritic should change that policy and hold off on scores until it gets a number of reviews closer to the estimated total it’s going to include, depending on the movie. An average of four really doesn’t mean much.

Not to get all Ronnie and up in everyone else’s business or anything. Just saying.

This is not a follow-up to “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.” The timing is odd, but the newer one actually looks a little better.

The film is directed by Jody Hill, the man at least semi-responsible for Kenny Powers and Fred Simmons (he directed “The Foot Fist Way” and “Eastbound & Down”).

Observe and Report opens April 10.