Director: Steven Brill
It seemed that Judd Apatow, the creator of "Superbad," "Knocked-up" and "The 40-year Old Virgin" was on a roll. Everything he touched had rave reviews and box office cash registers trilling. So it was inevitable that he would produce a movie sooner or later that didn't do so well and that the critics didn't like.
This is one occasion where the critics are wrong. "Drillbit Taylor" is a lot of fun and kids everywhere will love it. Three super nerds 's Ryan (Troy Gentile), skinny Wade (Nate Hartley) and little Emmett (David Dorfman) 's are constantly being beat up by school bullies. They hire the eponymous hero "Drillbit" (Owen Wilson) to be their bodyguard.
He claims to be ex-U.S. Special Forces and a martial arts expert but, of course, he is a fraud. In fact he is a homeless army deserter pan-handling on the streets of L.A. His plan is to fleece the kids for everything they've got and head off to Canada. But Drillbit is a decent sort of guy so it doesn't really work out like that. He ends up digging such a hole for himself that you wonder how he will ever get out of it.
The critics hated this movie because they had high expectations from Apatow's other work 's though he didn't actually write or direct this one, he only produced it. If you take this movie for what it is, a movie aimed at school aged children, it is more than OK. The bonding between the main characters is well done and Ryan, Wade and Emmett all make believable high school kids. There are no real belly laughs but the film is beautiful paced, well acted and surprisingly and interestingly for a comedy, wonderfully shot.
It is satisfying to see the whole thing resolved through fisticuffs. In the end that's the only way to deal with bullies. There are some nice touches. Like the fact that when Wade finally takes on the bullies he discovers what should be obvious to anybody looking at his lanky physique; he can more than hold his own in a fight because he has reach.
By the end of the film you do care about the characters and their predicament, what more do you need for the price of entry? Don't listen to the critics, well listen to this one critic, give Drillbit a shot.
