Movie Review - 'Drillbit Taylor'

Drillbit Taylor

Starring Owen Wilson, Troy Gentile and Nate Hartley
Directed by Steven Brill
Rated PG-13

The concept is leaden, the majority of the characters are unlikable and the joke/morale never makes itself stand out, so what does Drillbit Taylor really have to offer?

A funny fat kid.

Though he oversells most of his best moments onscreen, Troy Gentile gets a healthy amount of laughs playing a teen tormented by a high school bully. Beyond that, though, there's very little to recommend.

Gentile and fellow geeks Nate Hartley and David Dorfman (memorable as Naomi Watt's tormented son in The Ring) want to change their luck and standing now that they're in high school, so when an unforgivably nasty thug (Alex Frost) starts to make freshman year a living hell, they hire a bodyguard.

After interviewing several candidates - by way of a montage that the film thinks is really funny - they settle on Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), a disheveled veteran who claims to have protected three vice presidents and Sly Stallone, among others.

Taylor really only wants the money, and though his character arc necessarily demands that he feel some kinship for the boys and actually steps in to help them, getting to that point often proves painful for the geeks in the line of fire as well as the audience.

Drillbit Taylor is co-written by Seth Rogen and marks something like the sixth movie that has Judd Apatow's name attached to it but very little of what makes his movies special or at least interesting and funny.

The character types are all there: Slackers, freaks and yes, geeks. But at some point early on, Drillbit Taylor becomes less about the characters and more about the types, which is one problem Apatow's directorial efforts never have to shoulder.

The scenes of revenge against the bully are hollow as are the moments of connectivity between Drillbit and the boys. Maybe they should have hired a bodyguard to protect them from the fomulaic and boring instead.