Word: drillbit
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...project has a serviceable plot device - three nerds, fiendishly set upon by a high school bully, hire a bodyguard to protect them. He turns out to be not the special forces vet he claims to be, but a homeless man - physically inept and cowardly to boot. The only thing Drillbit Taylor neglects is to make any sort of comic capital out of a basic situation that a lot of people - not all of them currently afflicted by acne - have endured in life. Mostly the kids (Troy Gentile, Nate Hartley and David Dorfman) are humiliated in a lot of unfunny ways...
Given the uninventive, not to say downright repetitive nature of the narrative, about all Drillbit has going for it is Wilson's star presence. Or should we say his often agreeable lack of presence. He has a thin voice and a passive manner, enlivened by a slightly eerie belief that he's smarter - or anyway more manipulative - than he appears to be. I find him to be a redeeming, even lovable, presence in not-so-hot movies. But he is not a great physical comedian, and it is asking a lot of his recessive screen character to carry film virtually...
...well, maybe our imaginary production executive is right. The elements for a successful comedy are all present and accounted for in Drillbit Taylor and doubtless word of them has been buzzing along the Internet for weeks. But elements are what Hollywood makes marketing campaigns out of, not entertaining movies. And the fact that this movie has been sent into the world on Easter weekend, when much of its population is preoccupied with piety, probably betokens a certain loss of faith in its cheerless impieties...
Studio heads are so sure of Rogen's appeal that in addition to financing The Pineapple Express, which Rogen and Goldberg wrote, they've already made the kids' movie he wrote, Drillbit Taylor. And he's so excited that the studio is making Pineapple, his violent stoner action comedy, that he forces people on the set to touch the bloody prosthetic ear he's wearing. He is giddy about his on-set injuries (including a sprained finger and bruised ribs), and the explosive Butt-head-like giggle that punctuates everything he says betrays his excited nervousness. "After every single take...