Dir. Steven Brill, US, 2008, 102mins
Cast: Owen Wilson, Troy Gentile, Nate Hartley, David Dorfman, Leslie Mann
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Another month, another movie with nerd herd head honcho Judd Apatow’s seal of comedy approval, but where this differs from smash-hit offerings such as Knocked Up, Superbad, and The 40 Year Old Virgin is in the fact that it’s the first real mis-fire from the production behemoth and is actually quite rubbish.
Written by Superbad scribe and Knocked Up star, Seth Rogan, Drillbit Taylor tells the age old and well worn tale of classroom geeks versus high school bullies. When said geeks – Ryan (chubby), Wade (be-speckled), and Emmit (McLovin lite) – seek the help of homeless confidence man Drillbit Taylor (Wilson – The Darjeeling Ltd.) as their own personal bodyguard they get less than they bargained for from the affable loser and we the audience patiently wait for the hilarity to begin.
Steven Brill’s movie is a cut and paste collection of what seems to be ideas left on the Apatow Productions meeting room floor. Rogan has already made an infinitely better version of the same film with Superbad; three kids, one fat, one skinny and one ultra geeky are all present but lack any of the charm that Cera, Hill, and Mintz-Plasse injected into their performances. The characters in Drillbit are heightened beyond realism to resemble classroom clichés; the “brace faced loser” and a bully with less depth than a bad guy from The Beano comic. It’s telling that the best scenes are the family dinner table discussions that appear lifted from cult TV show Freaks and Geeks, and you guessed it, Apatow produced it.
Thank Owen Wilson then for another fantastic turn as the titular tramp because he is the sole reason for watching this limp comedy. Wheeling out his familiar brand of stoner shtick he is thoroughly likable whilst delivering knockout lines such as “five minutes might be four too many” in response to a proposed liaison with Leslie Mann’s English teacher.
Aimed squarely at the Little Rascals demographic, they should lap up the schoolyard high-jinks and low-brow humor that the more discerning viewer will wince in-between Wilson’s wisecracks.
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