DRILLBIT TAYLOR.

Have you ever wondered what Superbad would have been like had the kids been starting their Freshman year of high school instead of ending their Senior year? And what if the movie was just rated PG-13 instead of R because all the dirty talk and sex jokes were removed? And the alcohol was also removed, so that the movie was just basically about acceptance (and getting a girl to notice you)? Then Drillbit Taylor is the movie for you! Drillbit Taylor is about a couple loser kids (who pick up a third along the way) who are starting high school off on the wrong foot. Wade (Nate Hartley), Ryan (Troy Gentile), and Emmit (David Dorfman) are three dorky kids trying to stay alive in high school, as two bullies, Filkins (Alex Frost) and Ronnie (Josh Peck), won’t leave them alone. So they go out and hire a bodyguard, Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), who is actually a bum just trying to rip off the kids so he can get enough money to go to Canada. But then he starts getting attached to them.

I’ll start off by clarifying my opening statements. Really, if you strip down Superbad like I did, it really would be this movie. The three main kids are an incredible amount (even in looks) like the three from Superbad. However, that doesn’t make this movie super bad (… I know, bad joke). It was actually really funny. It’s hard to get me to laugh out loud in movies these days, but I found myself laughing quite a bit with this one.

Unfortunately, there are some downsides. A lot of the jokes were hit or miss. There were some pretty funny ones, but others were just silly and unneeded. One was actually kinda disturbing (the step-dad on the vibrating chair). The acting was… alright. Owen Wilson was good, as was Nate Hartley (for the most part). Troy Gentile was just awful at times, but sometimes he was okay. Alex Frost and Josh Peck as the bullies were really good, though Josh Peck’s character was really underused, I thought. Stephen Root makes a couple appearances as the high school principal, and his part is alright and has its moments. And then we have Leslie Mann (AKA Judd Apatow’s wife, who appears in every movie he’s linked to). Her part was completely unnecessary and added nothing to the movie. The relationship with Drillbit was pointless and had no chemistry whatsoever.

You can really tell this movie was toned down from the other Apatow productions, but it doesn’t suffer too much from it. The movie didn’t really need any excessive nudity, swearing, or sex-talk. It worked for what it was. I really wanted to give this movie a higher score, but there were just some things that brought it down a notch. However, I think giving it this rating is ironic within itself.

I Am McLovin!