Owen Wilson, despite his recent well-publicised problems, is an actor with tons of charisma and charm. He has the laid-back stoner act so well honed that he could do it in his sleep. The problem is that too often that's exactly what he seems to be doing. Drillbit Taylor is no exception, and to be honest, we've all seen it too many times before.Wilson plays an army deserter who is hired by three high school nerds as a bodyguard to protect them from the school bully. The character arcs are as predictable as Wilson's performance - he goes from looking to exploit the youngsters to a genuine affection, they move from passive victims to standing up for themselves.
This is not irredeemably bad - there are some funny moments - but coming from the same school as Superbad and Knocked-up (Seth Rogen is one of the writers here), you would expect funnier. There is a fine line to be trod in a comedy dealing with bullying - how to keep both the humour and the sympathy for the victims. Drillbit Taylor manages neither entirely successfully. All three of the youngsters border on the irritating and unlikeable, with only Troy Gentile offering enough charisma to get beyond this. Meanwhile Alex Frost (Elephant) as the bully offers a performance with enough menace to come close to stealing the whole movie and Leslie Mann is wasted as the teacher who falls for Drillbit.
Overall - 2.5/5 A few nice touches and funny moments can't disguise the fact that this should be both better and funnier and that Owen Wilson really needs to find some more challenging material - you just know he can do better than this.
