Customer Reviews

Drillbit Taylor [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Wade (Hartley), Ryan (Gentile), and Emmitt (Dorfman) are three nerdy kids in need of protection. School bully Filkins (Frost) has decided to make their lives a living hell. After about a week of dealing with this, they decide to hire a bodyguard. Constrained by money, they opt for Drillbit Taylor (Wilson), an ex-military man who is currently homeless and trying to make enough money to get to Canada. Drillbit is less than impressive though, and has to come up with a plan quickly if he wants to help the kids and himself as well.

"Drillbit Taylor" fits the mold of the Judd Apatow-produced films, albeit in PG-13 form. Think of it as Judd Apatow-light, and that is fine because he knows what makes good movies. Sweetness, likeable characters, and raunchy comedy make up the mix, and for "Drillbit Taylor", the raunchiness is toned back to give it a PG-13 rating. Wilson is very good as Drillbit, a con-man of sorts that really isn't that good at things. "Drillbit Taylor" is an amusing addition to the Apatow family of films.

I purchased this movie for my grandson, who is a "tween", and he loved it! It is funny, and yet, it shows a side of bullying that needs to be brought out into our times. I think boys and girls would like it alot!

Three geeky freshmen students face lots of troubles from 2 high school bullies. They are placed in the lockers, beaten up, humiliated, and laughed at all the time. In order to survive high school and save all this humiliation, they decide to hire a body guard. They met many candidates (one of the candidates is Chuck Liddell by the way), however they decide eventually to hire Drillbit Taylor. Now Drillbit Taylor told them he is an ex-miliatry fighter, but in reality he is only a street begger looking to make some extra money.

Nice movie with some funny scenes. The funniest scenes are the ones where the students were bullied around. The craziest things were done to them.

This movie kinda reminded me of the high school I went to. We didn't have nasty bullies like the ones in this movie, however we had some bullies that needed some butt wooping in order to behave well. I believe that if you stand up for yourself in High School and manage to earn others' respect, you will be able to do the same thing in the rest of your life.

Taken on its own, Drillbit Taylor is a film that's too grounded in reality to be that funny. Considering the pedigree involved in writing the project, add the phrase "Exceedingly disappointing" to it also. You see, John Hughes came up with the story, and Seth Rogan co-wrote the screenplay. No, this isn't an Ethan Cohen vs. Etan Cohen situation here, these are the John Hughes & Seth Rogan that you know and love. So how did this film go so wrong?

First off, the story. The plot revolves around three bullied kids hiring a bodyguard to protect them, except the bodyguard is actually a homeless person, and doesn't really have any credentials to be bodyguarding. Sound familiar? It should. The plot derives cliches from every bully plot or sub-plot in movie history, every character pretending who they're not, then being found out plot or sub-plot you've ever seen, and a myriad of other random high school cliches. And since the script was co-written by Seth Rogan, who also did Superbad, you can derive a dozen similarities to that movie as well. In fact, in that respect, Drillbit Taylor seems like the prequel to Superbad. There's the tall, geeky kid that has trouble with the ladies. There's his smart-mouthed friend, who also happens to be chubby. And they even have their third member, who isn't really a core member, but can be helpful/crazy when you need him to be. But Michael Cera, Jonah Hill & Christopher Mintz-Plasse these kids aren't. They're bad actors, and they sell little if anything about their characters. The adults are good actors, but with the exception of Owen Wilson and maybe Danny McBride, everybody is reduced to little more than cartoon characters. In one scene, the bully charms all the parents and the school principal with a stupid joke and a smile, and everybody acts like he was Jesus Christ. Granted, this fits into the cliche in these films that adults are stupid and you must take it upon yourself to stand up for yourself, but that's Home Alone logic. And at least in that film, the adults weren't total buffoons.

But that being said, the highlight of the film, and the only real reason you should think about watching this film is Owen Wilson. Wilson brings a certain charm to the character and makes the most out of a poorly-written character that's story-arch is a little bit non-existent. Wilson's character starts off as a greedy jerk, then turns into a nice guy, with the implication of one scene being the only explained reason. Then there's the fact that Drillbit can't really fight, then turns into a kicking bad-ass in the one ending scene that makes of the film's DVD cover.

Which brings me to this: The film isn't that funny. There's some gags that work, and the charms of a few of the actors make jokes more funny than they really are, but there simply isn't much here to laugh at. This is mainly due to the fact that there's little place for true humor in the story. Why? Because the bully is an unrelenting and dangerous psychopath that threatens people and commits bodily harm to them with a freakin' samurai sword. Thus, the confrontational scenes are utterly brutal to watch. It's like watching a mouse crawling into a lion's cage. You admire its perseverance, but you known that the Lion has the ability and the desire to shred such a cute thing. It's not funny, it's just uncomfortable and scary. The story tries to add humor around these situations, but every one of them falls flat. Especially the ones that involve topics such as balls. Oh, and if you've ever had past experience, or have been traumatized by a bully, you'll be traumatized by watching this film. I felt traumatized and I haven't even been in that situation.

Overall, if you're a HUGE Owen Wilson fan, then check out this movie, and you'll find something you like. Otherwise, skip it like it's a fat girl at the prom dance. There's not much to like, there's not much to think about, there's not that much to laugh at, and in the end, you just feel bad.

I was really looking forward to this movie as I'm usually a fan of Owen Wilson, but I have to say this one was a bit dull. If I had to guess, I'd say the potential humor was toned back to get a PG-13 rating.

On the plus side there are some funny parts such as the body guard interviews, the training sequences, and Owen Wilson as a gym teacher. There was a lot of room to expand these parts and make the movie funnier.

On the negative I think the whole robbery aspect detracted from the film. It didn't add much to your opinion of Owen's character, and the scenes with the other homeless guys were rather pointless.

All in all I think there are much better Owen Wilson movies (Wedding Crashers, anything with Ben Stiller) and better high school movies, this one didn't stand out.

I thought this movie would be hilarious because of Seth Rogen's involvement with writing the story but I was wrong. Owen Wilson is okay and you rarely get laughs from the teenage kids. Pretty much a Flop!

Drillbit Taylor makes quite an accomplishment in that it is a PG-13-rated film that has the feel of last year's R-rated Superbad. Most of the vulgarity that made Apatow's previous venture inappropriately hilarious has absconded to unknown horizons, and Drillbit is left with utilizing more crafty means at achieving laughs. Not necessarily more intelligent, but certainly less crude, the similarly hilarious lead characters all find their perfect places in this consistently amusing comedy.

Three kids experience bullying at school by antagonizer Filkins, an emancipated student who revels in terrorizing smaller kids. On their first day at high school, Wade (Nate Hartley as the Harry-Potter-like scrawny kid), Ryan (Troy Gentile as the overweight kid with the never-ending ranting) and Emmit (David Dorfman as the kid-who-gets-shoved-in-a-locker) can't seem to evade constant humiliation at the hands of nemesis Filkins. Only able to take so much, the three decide to hire a bodyguard to defend them. In a riotous job-interview montage, the trio chooses Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), an ex-black-ops and improvised weapons expert, who teaches them to stick up for themselves. During the process, Drillbit gets sidetracked with aggressive teacher Lisa (Leslie Mann) and the truth that he is nothing more than a homeless bum who yearns for the good life in Canada.

Drillbit Taylor, like Superbad, derives much of its humorous moments by forcing many continual little laughs. Quick jokes follow rapid slapstick to allow the audience to pick and choose what tickles their funny-bones. When some gags don't work, instant new ribs replace them so that no one can sit still for long. But most unique is the idea that the majority of the humor does not rely on crudeness, but the friendlier grounds of physical comedy (undergoing torment by bullies) and unexpectedly nonsensical dialogue (the love chatter between Drillbit and Lisa).

Again this comedy falls into the same storyline quicksand that plagues most recent comedies, which is allowing the conflict to become too serious. No one doubts the fact that the plot is absolutely ridiculous and that most of the concepts are exaggerated to the point of absurdity, but within this fantasy world of nerds and bullies, some things we hope to remain realistic. Things like vengeance against the bullies, getting the girls, and staying out of serious harm's way. These concepts are approached with little justice to realism, and so results in a conclusion that can only be as unlikely as the samurai-sword-wielding antagonist. That's not to say that any of it was intended to be faithful to the stereotypical perception of high school life, but most of it appears that way from the get-go.

"As long as you have a coffee cup in your hand, nobody says nothing," explains Drillbit, on his ease at infiltrating the school as a substitute teacher. And so as long as the humor remains appealingly gut-busting, no one questions the reasoning behind much of the juvenile antics. Where Superbad focused on nonstop sexual and gross-out humor, Drillbit stays refreshingly clean with its parody of the cool kids and the un-cool kids frequenting a typical high school. And (comedic) revenge against persecution is one of the most universally inviting themes to watch.

- Mike Massie

Ok who wouldn't love this movie? We are Owen Wilson fans he's a favorite in our family, he ooses carisma and character and his warm cookie style humor is lovable and we admire his selective style in movie makings. This is a really cute story line, have'nt seen one like it very unique.

This movie didn't earn 5 stars, but it's not such a bad movie. There's lots of funny parts, such as the bodyguard recruiting sequence (I laughed at the Tiger) as well as the scene where the bully is sitting there in front of everyone and still acts all sweet and charming and makes everyone go 'aww'. He bears a strong resemblance to young Hannibal Lecter and doubtless the similarities in physical appearance was intentional.

Seeing Josh (Drake and Josh) as the bully's friend/partner was a surprise and a nice treat. Josh certainly has changed from the plump, dorkishly cute kid he used to be on Nickelodeon, and he played a good role as the other bully. Owen Wilson was amusing in his role as bum and then substitute teacher, and Lisa Lampanelli's cameo was hilarious, especially when she scolded her son for calling Owen a bum when before she had been making dirty jokes to said bum. All in all, a decent movie, 3.75/5 stars.

I don't know why I liked this movie. It was stupid, but stupid in a campy funny way. Rent it - save it for the $1 rental, but give it a try... great for a lazy afternoon when you just need a laugh or few.