Drillbit Taylor
Review by Josh Hurst | posted 3/21/2008
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There's a lot that can be said of director/producer Judd Apatow and writer Seth Rogen, but, more than anything else, they come across as two guys who really, really like comedies. And it's obvious from any of their collaborative efforts—The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad—that they've spent the majority of their adolescent and adult lives learning at the altar of every fratboy comedy since Animal House—everything from Ghostbusters and Stripes all the way through Anchorman.
Owen Wilson in the title role
Sure, their supporters champion them—rightly—for investing their movies with far more heart and storytelling prowess than is common for trashy mainstream comedies, and their detractors criticize them—also rightly—for their bawdy, sophomoric sense of humor. But more fundamental to their craft than either of those things is the simple fact that they've mastered the rules of silly, raunchy comedies to the point that they can borrow gags and stylistic devices from other movies and put them together in such a way that it seems fresh. So it's no surprise that, after a string of hits, the Apatow-Rogen team has assumed their own place within the pantheon of modern comedies; it seems like that was pretty much their plan all along.
And yet it's entirely possible that their latest film, Drillbit Taylor—produced by Apatow, co-written by Rogen, and directed by Steven Brill—could be their first fumble. Though it's certainly not a disaster, it is a move away from the style of comedy that has made them stars, and, as such, it finds them on shaky ground on more than one occasion. That's because this isn't another R-rated raunch-fest—it's a high-school comedy, aimed at a slightly younger audience and restricted by a PG-13 rating. And as such, it's not as funny as their other films but it's still crude enough that it's difficult to recommend it to the high school age-group to which it is targeted. But it's also a fairly likeable film, and, in a way, it makes the comedic know-how of Apatow and Rogen more impressive than ever before.
Ryan Emmit and Wade look to Drillbit for help
If you've seen the trailer, you know the plot: A trio of awkward, nerdy high-school freshmen (Nate Hartley, Troy Gentile, and David Dorfman—three young actors who show real promise) hire a bodyguard to protect them from a pair of nasty bullies. The bodyguard, of course, is Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), who isn't really a bodyguard at all, but, rather, a homeless man who thinks he can con the kids out of all their money before robbing their homes. What the trailers don't show, however, is that Drillbit once again exhibits an impressive knowledge of its genre, and it ties together so many plot devices from similar movies—Taylor training the kids and teaching them to stand up for themselves, his change of heart as he gets to know them, a steamy romantic subplot—that it comes across as confident and assured, the work of craftsmen who know their medium very well indeed. To their credit, the filmmakers work all of these familiar elements together in such a way that it doesn't seem clichéd or boring, even if, when you stop to think about it, you can predict everything that happens long before it ever comes to be.
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