Ever since Roseanne Barr and John Goodman gave blue-collared comedy an unhealthy dose of fast food in the early-1980s, the archetypal (and eminently realistic) fat people of the world were able to unite and laugh at themselves. If you are reading a movie review, the chances are that you are not doing so, while running a machine-marathon at your local sports centre.

By the same token, relaxing in your favourite armchair and watching films can hardly be described as a recipe for ‘weightlessness’. Yet, Kevin James, who plays the obese family-man of the film’s title, employed in the role similarly prescribed, falls into that ‘typical American’ classification.

He lives at home with his mother and two daughters and is employed, by default, as a truly conscientious shopping mall security guard. Of course, the first part of the potentially cruel comedy lies in the fact that he always wanted to be a New York Cop but that he failed the medical examination, because of… well, you know. As a result, he rides around the mall on his ‘Segway’ gyroscopically-controlled two-wheeler, flirting, whenever he can but in the manner of one of the NYC’s finest, with one particular young stall-holder, Amy, played beguilingly by Jayma Mays. Instead of a pistol, he has CS spray, but the implications are amusing and largely the same.

At every step of the way, his life is thwarted by something or somebody. As an overweight hypoglycaemic, he is prone to simply collapsing unless he can get a charge of extra sugar inside of him. However, while this is not at all sounding like the basis for good comedy, his exploits are no less than side-splittingly funny and, when he is required to train a newcomer to the mall security scene, little realising that Keir O’Donnell (Veck Sims) is actually a criminal, who has masterminded an audacious credit-card theft on the mall on the busiest shopping day of the year, another side to his character takes over. What results, of course, is highly unlikely but it is very amusing and as Paul Blart proceeds to save the day, you find yourself willing this exceedingly chubby chap to take out all of his frustrations on the criminals with which he is left to deal.

It is a good, slapstick film, with some excellent supporting roles and the script-writing duties were also shared between Kevin James and Nick Bakay. It is a pleasant family romp that even the most unwilling initial viewer will find engaging.