Review of Drillbit Taylor (2008) by Dawdlingpoet — 27 Nov 2021

This is quite a predictable movie but thats not to say that it doesn't work entirely. I felt that, given the story and given what you should presume to expect, if you read up about it and know what its about before going to see it, it does a fairly decent job of it, really. The humour isn't really the constant, laugh out loud type but at the same time, there is humour there and I certainly did laugh a few times while watching it.

If, by hearing like I say in the TV ads that this movie comes from the people behind Knocked Up and Superbad and you go to see it presuming it'll be exactly the same, then you may be a bit dissapointed. I haven't seen those movies myself but I know about them and from what I'm aware, this is much more of a family movie, or one for younger kids (early teens onwards), although you do get quite a few sexual references, to balls and that sort of stuff, otherwise its not entirely the same and the main difference I feel, from what I know of this compared to the other movies, is that this one is alot more sentimental. It really is quite sentimental but I think you would expect that to some degree, again going by the story.

This is another movie that centres in on the underdogs, I guess you could say, what with these young boys who start off so excited to start life in high school and to become popular and get lots of girls (of course!) who get their hopes trampled by one mean bully (and he really does play the part of the bully very well, he certainly looked the type in my opinion!) and then even Drillbit himself, this homeless man who, if the others realised what his real identity was, in that respect, would lose respect for him but of course, the movie shows that these people aren't total losers as they first may seem... it covers all that sort of usual ground, the kind of stuff you would expect of most similar movies. Yes, again this is fairly appealing to me as I suppose I do relate to the story, I wasn't overly bullied at school but I probably was one of the geekier pupils and it certainly does make me glad that I've finished that phase in life!

I do sometimes wonder what it is, that I can say in as many words, that I find quite so appealing about these kind of movies, sometimes. I think its mainly the character development, although I notice some other reviews seem to indicate they didn't find the characters in this movie likeable, I did, why there's that difference? I don't know but I did and its not just Drillbit either but the three boys too, of course. I was thinking of only rating this as satisfactory but I can't help but feel that I'm glad I'd seen it at the cinema, by the end of the movie I was rooting for the guys and for Drillbit and I do feel that I enjoyed seeing it, so in that respect, how can I not rate it as good? I think this is a movie that most Owen fans should enjoy, if you enjoyed his previous work in movies such as You, Me and Dupree and/or if you like the sound of the story, if you can relate to the story and everything, I think you should enjoy this, if you can get through the sentimentality. I'm kind of swayed between rating it 3 or 4 stars but I think this time I will be nice and rate it 4, its on perhaps the lower side of 4 for good, due mainly to the good performances and some amusing scenes present in it. The humour is fairly random at times too, there's a very random scene at one point, in which Wade's father tries to give him some serious advice after learning that he got a black eye from defending someone, while he's being vibrated on some massage style chair... which is random and crude but kind of funny too. Other funny scenes include when Wade and Ryan decide to fight with each other, in a sort of a fake way, that is quite funny and also a scene where Ryan decides to 'step up' and have a 'rap off' (if thats what they call it?) against Filkins.

Its a little weird, I suppose, the mix of crude language and some such humour with the over sentimentality thats also present but it did seem to work alright, I certainly enjoyed seeing it anyway.

While this film hardly breaks any new ground and can be seen as being pretty predictable, as well as having a slightly strange mix of crude language and humour in parts mixed with whats probably over sentimentality, its still a fairly decent movie. Its not fantastic but its ok, I feel I quite enjoyed it and fans of other, similar movies Owen has done should enjoy this too. If the story interests you and you know what to expect (a fairly basic sentimental teen comedy), then this should entertain you. I didn't find myself wondering how long until the end of the movie at any point, which I sometimes do end up worrying when a movie goes on for too long, so I feel that it was about the right length and I did feel that the actors did well in portraying their characters.