DRILLBIT TAYLOR

Written by Hombre Divertido

There are two minutes in Drillbit Taylor worth seeing. That leaves one hundred minutes to avoid. One moment worth seeing is a subtle musical reference to Cape Fear, and the other is a cameo by Adam Baldwin in homage to the far superior film My Bodyguard. Yes, the only good parts of Drillbit Taylor are references to other films. So very sad. Even sadder is the fact that said moments are probably too obscure for most audience members to appreciate.

Having Adam Baldwin make an appearance as a potential bodyguard for some kids being tormented by a bully was certainly a good idea, since he played the role in the similarly themed 1980 film My Bodyguard, but the result was simply to remind the audience that a movie had been made with virtually the same story, and the previous movie was much better. My Bodyguard had both a story and characters with far more depth.

In Drillbit Taylor all we get is stereotypes and rehash. Tory Gentile, Nate Hartley, and David Dorfman, play over- and under-weight high school students who are targeted by the school bully (Alex Frost). In an effort to solve the problem they seek to hire a bodyguard. In an incredibly contrived “The story does not need to make sense” sequence, they find and hire Drillbit Taylor played by Owen Wilson. Wilson does an adequate job with what he is given here, and virtually makes the character interesting enough to generate a desire to see him in a story worth telling, but not quite.

Drillbit Taylor was written by Kristofor Brown and Seth Rogen and produced by Judd Apatow, Susan Arnold, and Donna Arkoff Roth. Yes, the same Rogen and Apatow whose names appeared on last year's Superbad; another superior movie dealing with high school kids. You would think that they would have seen this as a dud prior to making it, but apparently they were not aware of just how bad the script was, or how bad the direction of Steven Brill (Little Nicky and Mr. Deeds) would impact it. The direction sucks out any humor that might have been gleaned from the typical antics of the outcast high school kids. Though in his defense, something had to be done to make it different from the scenes in Superbad, Napoleon Dynamite, etc. and this was different.

Recommendation: Wait for it to come out on DVD and then rent My Bodyguard.