The Story
Homeless dude Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) is looking to make some money fast in order to move to Canada. Resourceful and semi-charming, Drillbit applies for a ‘job’ as the bodyguard of three nerdy kids who are being bullied at high school by two guys straight out of Teen Movie Jerks Central Casting. No teachers can control these two hoodlums (in fact, none really even try) and the rest of the student body is either in awe of their power or too scared to do anything other than to watch them pick on kids half their size.
The Cast
You have to cut Owen Wilson some slack for being game enough to take on a role that just had to read funnier on the page than it played out onscreen. Wilson tries to infuse the film with a little goofy lightness, but ultimately flounders because there’s just nothing there for him to work with. Leslie Mann normally steals scenes from her co-stars but is completely wasted as the teacher with raging hormones and a broken b.s. detector. The young group of actors…well, they may sort of, semi, if you squint really hard and look at them out of the side of your eye, might look like a young Jonah Hill or Michael Cera, but they just aren’t substitutes for the real guys. And David Dorfman’s no Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and that’s too bad because this film could have really used a little McLovin.
Granted, there are a couple of funny moments interspersed in this PG-13 rated film. There’s a rap-off that made me chuckle and there are one or two other scenes that feel fresh and fun. But the main problem is that basically the film doesn’t know where to go with the humor. It’s obviously for kids, but the funniest moments are with the adults. There’s a decent comedy in the adult storylines, had the screenwriters opted to turn the spotlight on Wilson, his homeless buddies, and Wilson’s love interest, but that’s not the film’s focus. In aiming to please young teens, Drillbit Taylor sails wide of the mark. The bottom line is Drillbit Taylor’s just not funny.
Drillbit Taylor was directed by Steven Brill and is rated PG-13 for crude sexual references throughout, strong bullying, language, drug references and partial nudity.
Theatrical Release Date: March 21, 2008
