Spring Break
Rogen's Drillbit Taylor imitates and fails
Issue date: 3/27/08
It was an all-too familiar scene: two high school kids talking on cell phones about a day at school and how their lives were going to change. They rattled through the seemingly relatable dribble about popularity and girls, cracked a few fat jokes, yet after each punch line, all I heard were chirping crickets in the theater.
Drillbit Taylor came off as a cheap cash cow for co-writer Seth Rogen, who seems to be riding the massive success of Superbad by creating a strikingly similar plot with almost mirror-image characters and themes. His lack of effort shows.
Superbad was his high-school movie, a movie that joined the ranks with American Graffiti, Dazed and Confused and The Breakfast Club. Drillbit Taylor was the death rattle, the dying gasp of his ultimate project.
The story mainly follows Wade (Nate Hartley) and Ryan (Troy Gentile), two incoming high school freshmen who immediately suffer repeated abuse from members of the senior class, particularly from one exceptionally maniacal emancipated minor who has curried good favor with the administration.
The boys hire a homeless man by the name of Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) as a bodyguard against the bullies, under the misconception that he is an ex-marine.
Initially trying to con the boys and their families out of everything they own, Drillbit eventually forms a relationship with them and fights for one last shot at redemption.
Owen Wilson as Drillbit Taylor was the saving grace for this movie. Without him, I wouldn't even have considered it. He delivers some funny lines and his interactions with the kids are sometimes worth a chuckle or two, but on the whole, it's the same old Owen Wilson.
The character of Drillbit Taylor is just a homeless version of the identical Owen Wilson characters that viewers have seen pop up in B-list comedies such as Starsky and Hutch and You, Me, and Dupree.
He's charming with the ladies and quick with the witty one-liners, but by the end of the movie, he doesn't deliver anything new. His lack of effort is almost as evident as Rogen's.
Drillbit Taylor came off as a cheap cash cow for co-writer Seth Rogen, who seems to be riding the massive success of Superbad by creating a strikingly similar plot with almost mirror-image characters and themes. His lack of effort shows.
Superbad was his high-school movie, a movie that joined the ranks with American Graffiti, Dazed and Confused and The Breakfast Club. Drillbit Taylor was the death rattle, the dying gasp of his ultimate project.
The story mainly follows Wade (Nate Hartley) and Ryan (Troy Gentile), two incoming high school freshmen who immediately suffer repeated abuse from members of the senior class, particularly from one exceptionally maniacal emancipated minor who has curried good favor with the administration.
The boys hire a homeless man by the name of Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) as a bodyguard against the bullies, under the misconception that he is an ex-marine.
Initially trying to con the boys and their families out of everything they own, Drillbit eventually forms a relationship with them and fights for one last shot at redemption.
Owen Wilson as Drillbit Taylor was the saving grace for this movie. Without him, I wouldn't even have considered it. He delivers some funny lines and his interactions with the kids are sometimes worth a chuckle or two, but on the whole, it's the same old Owen Wilson.
The character of Drillbit Taylor is just a homeless version of the identical Owen Wilson characters that viewers have seen pop up in B-list comedies such as Starsky and Hutch and You, Me, and Dupree.
He's charming with the ladies and quick with the witty one-liners, but by the end of the movie, he doesn't deliver anything new. His lack of effort is almost as evident as Rogen's.
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