SYNOPSIS:
"Owen Wilson is Hilarious" in this laugh-out-loud
comedy as Drillbit Taylor, a down-on-his-luck soldier of fortune
and self-professed martial arts expert. Three nerdy high school
kids, desperate for a way to exact revenge on their nemeses
– two school bullies – end up hiring Drillbit’s
budget bodyguard services and they get what they pay for.
Drillbit
takes this bumbling band of misfits under his wing and, with
his zany and oddball training methods, leads them as they
turn the tables on their attackers and take back their school!
MOVIE REVIEW:
Before he went all messy over Kate Hudson and lands himself
in hospital, Owen Wilson did a Judd Apatow produced movie
called "Drillbit Taylor" earlier this year. The
genuinely funny guy has been playing the 'slacker' role in
countless movies before and with "Taylor" proves
he could take a break from movies and also romance for a while.
Wilson
plays Drillbit an ex-US army ranger or so he claimed who landed
himself a job protecting three high school freshmen, Wade,
Ryan and Emmit from the school’s notorious bully, Filkins.
What
really engages the audience in "Taylor" perhaps
is the chemistry between the young cast. Nate Hartley who
plays Wade (somewhat reminiscent of Michael Cera from "Juno")
is amazing with Ryan (Troy Gentile, an upcoming younger version
of Seth Rogen). The bantering is humourous, naughty but within
the realm of a PG movie. The writings which came from Kristofor
Brown and Seth Rogen established the boys’ friendships
with great results but the Drillbit character on the other
hand is slightly weaker.
Does
anyone out there actually like a slacker or a bum who begs
for money, showers naked on a beach and sits in a coffeeshop
with the rest of his slacker friends groaning about their
future? Unless he is Owen Wilson of course. To be honest,
we are not really inspired by the character of Taylor and
it’s implausible that the writers turned him into a
hero towards the end. With less than stellar reviews for "Drillbit
Taylor", Owen should preferably backup and search for
a script that truly calls for his talent instead of hanging
on to the usual slacker roles.
Since
this is billed as a comedy, we have to also overlook the fact
that Taylor can easily penetrate into a high school as a substitute
teacher and well, managed to hook up with a sex-starved teacher
(Leslie Mann, Apatow’s real-life wife). Secondly, you
have to again overlook Filkins almost psychotic ways in tormenting
the boys. You mean there’s no one in the school that
knows about Youtube? No evidence to prove Filkins’ bully
acts? There’s a character that uses his handphone to
capture the torturous acts but it’s never established
further. It’s a comedy after all.
Despite
all the unbelievable plotting and weak setups, "Drillbit
Taylor" on the whole is fun, rowdy courtesy of the antics
and wicked lines from the young cast with breaking voices,
just don’t go around poking for logical explanations.
SPECIAL
FEATURES:
Commentary by Steven Brill, Kristofor Brown, Troy
Gentile, Nate Hartley, David Dorfman – It’s
not necessary the best commentary track unlike the one for
"Knocked Up" but the director, writer and the teenage
cast serves up some decent bits about the production.
The
Writers Get A Chance to Talk: Kristofor Brown & Seth Rogen
– Rogen must be a busy man nowadays because this 14
minutes interview was conducted by Brown over a phone with
Rogen who was on set filming another movie.
Deleted
& Extended Scenes – This segment runs over
17 minutes with extended scenes involving the teens interviewing
prospective bodyguards at Coffee Bean and a pitiful scene
which has the Emmit character being bullied by Filkins and
company while urinating.
Line-O-Rama
– See the cast improvised their lines all over and over
again and also you learnt that an 'ass' word is not permitted
in a PG-13 movie.
Gag
Reel – A 4 minutes blooper reel to end the
extra features.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
video transfer is generally good with no apparent flaws and
artifacts spotted. In fact, the images look bright and crisp
on the whole. With Dolby Digital 5.1, the dialogue is strong
and ambience sound effects such as water splashing, car braking
contributes to the surround.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
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