With the release of the second Paul Blart film comes one huge question. Has Kevin James ever been funny? If one were to look at his filmography, they would see a huge steaming pile of awfulness, bottom of the barrel stuff.  

Yet, James somehow gets thrown in with David Spade and Adam Sandler as people with former glory, actors who keep ruining their names with subpar roles.

“Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” (Rated PG; 94 min) directed by Andy Fickman, shows James was never good, and this is just making him look worse.

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The jokes fall flat even for children, Blart never comes off as a likeable character and the movie makes absolutely no logical sense.

Blart, played by James, is back, and this time, the stakes are much higher. After the events of the first movie, the mall cop loses both his wife and his mother.

He feels alone, the only person in his life being his daughter, played by Raini Rodriguez, who will also be leaving soon for college. Both are invited to a security convention in Las Vegas and Blart looks at it as the last vacation the two can have.

But like the lead mall cop says, security never takes a break. The hotel the two are staying in is taken over by an art thief, played by Neal McDonough, who kidnaps Blart’s daughter. He must once again go above and beyond the call of duty to save the hotel’s art and his daughter.

Not to use a dad joke here, but if you look up the definition of useless, unwanted and idiotic in the dictionary, a poster from the Paul Blart series will be there. The sequel somehow exceeds the original in all the worst ways.

“Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” being made is interesting on its own. No one clamored for this film. The original was made six years ago, and while it made more than its budget, most critics hated it and fans did not think a sequel was needed.

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The only reason this got made was because James is buddy buddy with the film’s producer, Sandler. Both actors’ current stench surrounds this movie.

What is so disappointing is the minuscule potential it holds, which serves twofold for the original. This plot is straight from a 1980s, 1990s action movie.

“Cop or authority figure gets stuck with a bunch of thieves and has to play reluctant hero.” It is “Die Hard.” A director who understood the glory and hilarity of these 1980s and 1990s movies could make a flick both genuine and interesting.  

Underneath James’ clumsiness, lies a plot made for directors like Edgar Wright of “Hot Fuzz”, or Phil Lord and Christopher Miller of “21 Jump Street.” They know how to make a beautiful action movie tribute that shows the magnificence of the genre and its many pratfalls.

Their film would be pay homage, while also poking fun. Not be a series of fart jokes and failed attempts at physical comedy.

Is it possible James and the Blart character got worse? The role was never one people could connect with, which is a huge problem in comedy and in fiction in general. No matter how reprehensible the protagonist is, the viewer needs to emote with them. Even a character as horrible as Walter White makes you care about him.

This main character just comes off as annoying and Blart’s success is never really believable, which becomes a huge problem when the whole plot revolves around it.

He ends up being too busy fainting because of a supposedly funny illness or being creepily overprotective of his daughter to come off as an interesting character, even by a comedic standard.

The one semi-good side of the movie comes in the form of Neal McDonough. An actor most have never heard of, but will know when they see him, he brings a level of elegance and charisma to anything he does. For a good performance by him, look up the third season of “Justified.”

Here, he just serves as a lost possibility. He brings the same charm and ruthlessness that he does to all of his villain roles. Yet, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” cannot keep a good thing going. The character is brought down to a level where not even a child could find him frightening or threating.

While this movie was not as bad as “50 Shades of Grey,” it definitely tried to gobble up the cake.

Stars: 1.5 out of 5