Hollywood’s usual gameplan is to find a formula for success and then use it tirelessly to cash in at the box office. The recent offerings from writer/director/producer Judd Apatow demonstrates how leaning too heavily on one template will inevitably decrease the quality of a filmmaker’s work, even as he produces new films at a rate that would put Henry Ford to shame. Just look at Drillbit Taylor, the latest project from Apatow Production, which has popped out a staggering 15 films in the past three years.
Drillbit is, at best, a mediocre attempt by director Steven Brill to modernize a plot first introduced in 1980 by Tony Bill’s film, My Bodyguard. When Wade (Nate Hartley) and Ryan (Troy Gentile) show up for their first day of high school, they wear the same black and red-flamed bowling jerseys, which make them an easy target for Filkins, the easy-to-hate bully played by Alex Frost. When Wade tries to stick up for another timid freshman named Emmit, Filkins and his sidekick Ronnie decide to make the three as miserable as possible, and eventually the young protagonists are driven to search for a bodyguard on the internet.
Enter Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson). Wilson plays an ex-marine turned homeless man who sleeps in the woods and bathes in the outdoor showers at the local beach. He takes the job as the boys’ bodyguard with the real intention of robbing their houses so he can finance a trip to “the great white North,” i.e. Canada. From the moment Drillbit enters, the path of the film is easily predictable and the script, co-written by Seth Rogen, makes no effort to throw any curveballs at the viewers.
The movie is a disappointment, and it’s easy to see why: the script is overly simple, and unfortunately reliant on average child actors to generate humor. Wilson makes the film slightly bearable by portraying Drillbit as a witty and charismatic villain with a heart, who employs hilarious techniques for “training” the boys and ultimately faces an admittedly predictable moral dilemma as he bonds with them.
For fans of Apatow, the movie is troublingly bad. When a film is able to use an advertising slogan like, “From the guys who brought you Knocked Up and Superbad,” it will invariably reach a certain level of commercial success even if the majority of critics give it poor reviews. Knocked Up and Superbad were ingenious comedic efforts, but Drillbit Taylor and the recent Walk Hard show that Apatow—who is slated to produce three more films in 2008 and two in 2009—might want to start striving for quality over quantity.
