Paramount Pictures’ “Drillbit Taylor,” a new comedy starring
Owen Wilson as a bodyguard hired by several high school students to protect them from
a psychopath in training, will have its opening Friday, March 21. How big this
opening will be, it remains to be seen, as the movie seems to be nothing but a
faint re-make of “Superbad,” one of the best comedies of last year (about three
nerds humiliated en route to a party) and the 1980 middle-school fave “My
Bodyquard.”
Produced by Judd Apatow and co-written by Seth Rogen
(creative minds behind “Knocked Up” and “Superbad”), this high school comedy suggests
that Apatow’s laughing machine may be breaking down.
As the movie opens, two teenage geeks are bracing themselves
for their first day of high school. Wade (Nate Hartley) is a shy, skinny
egghead, while his best friend Ryan (Troy Gentile) is a chubby, curly-haired
smartmouth. They are fresh reminders of Michael Cera and Jonah Hill from
“Superbad,” but with fewer penis jokes.
Of course their debut goes spectacularly badly: Wade and Ryan
unwittingly wear the same dorky bowling shirt, then attract an annoying
pint-size tagalong named Emmit (David Dorfman) and the wrath of sociopath
school bully Filkins (Alex Frost).
Over the next week, Filkins stuffs the trio in lockers,
soaks them in urine and evades prosecution by the school's clueless principal
("Office Space's" Stephen Root).
Out of desperation, the three unfortunate friends place an
online add for a bodyguard and the best they can afford is an AWOL homeless
soldier named Drillbit, played by Owen Wilson (“Meet the Parents,” “The Royal
Tenenbaums,” “You, Me and Dupree,” A Night at the Museum,” The Life Aquatic,”
“Zoolander” and “Wedding Crashers”).
Wilson’s character is a
shiftless bum who camps in Santa
Monica bushes, looking for some easy cash. And, he
thinks he’s closer than ever to achieve his goal of skipping town and heading
to Canada
when meeting the three pals. He plays the good guy, but his real motive is to
rob them and their parents.
Like so many contemporary comedies, "Drillbit Taylor's" plot
doesn’t make a lick of sense. For example, Los Angeles rich kids like Wade and
Ryan would certainly not be attending public school, much less one in which the
principal is so indifferent to the violence taking place right beneath his
nose. Even more puzzling is the plot twist that has Drillbit entering the
school and being confused for a substitute teacher -- and then returning day
after day, calling himself "Dr. Illbit," and even beginning an affair
with a randy English teacher named Lisa (Leslie Mann, who's too good an actress
to be taking parts that give her this little to do).
And as if this wasn’t bad enough, Steven Brill (Mr. Deeds)
seems to have directed the show in a carefree mood: the scenes are crisp, and
the action flows with uncomplicated ease.
One thing is positive about this “Drillbit Taylor”: Owen
Wilson, as this is his first movie since suffering from depression last August
and being hospitalized for a week after an apparent suicide attempt. However,
not even an actor like Wilson
can save this movie from drowning.
And still, “Drillbit Taylor” could be the best from a list
of five movies all opening this weekend: “Shutter,” (a PG 13-rated movie about
a newly married couple that discovers ghostly images in photographs developed
after a tragic accident); “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns”(also a PG-13 rated movie about a daughter meeting
her late father’s family for the first time); “Snow Angels” (an R-rated drama
that interweaves the life of a teen with that of his old baby-sitter, her
husband and their daughter) and “Paranoid Park” (about a teenage skateboarder
whose life begins to fray after he is involved in the accidental death of a
security guard).
Drillbit Taylor: Comedy
Opens Friday, March 21
Directed By: Steven Brill
Written by: Seth Rogen and Kristofor Brown
Starring: Owen Wilson, Nate Hartley, Troy
Gentile, Alex Frost, Josh Peck and David Dorfman
Running time: 102 minutes
Rated: PG13 (crude sexual references throughout, drug references, partial
nudity, gleeful profanity, and bullying)
