After writing, directing and/or producing a four-year string of comedy hits (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Knocked Up, Superbad, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story), Judd Apatow could be forgiven for taking a little break, if for no reason other than to preserve the brand name from overuse. With four more Judd Apatow films lined up for 2008, though, our hot movie mogul shows no signs of slowing down.
Drillbit Taylor is the first of the 2008 offerings, a minor comedy in the Apatow canon produced by the man but handled largely by underlings. The film is written by Superbad conceptual mastermind Seth Rogan and pal Kristofer Brown (who gave us a lot of episodes of “Beavis and Butt-Head” back in the early ’90s). Allegedly, teen movie king John Hughes (Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club) helped suggest the story, which isn’t all that surprising. What is surprising is that Rogan didn’t write this screenplay when he was 15, as he allegedly did with Superbad, since the film traffics in the exact same sort of teen geek wish fulfillment.
 Freaks, geeks and the Butterscotch Stallion: Owen Wilson takes a gig as a schoolyard bodyguard in Drillbit Taylor. |
Our story centers around three hapless dorks about to enter their first day of high school. Skinny Ryan (Nate Hartley), tubby Nate (Troy Gentile) and appropriately hobbit-like nerd Emmit (David Dorfman) figure the best way to be popular in school is to “be proactive,” but their high-profile dorkiness quickly attracts the attention of resident bully Filkins (Alex Frost, who also hits theaters this weekend in Stop-Loss).
Fearing for their very lives, our nerdy trio places an ad in Soldier of Fortune magazine looking for a personal bodyguard. After interviewing several prospective candidates, the boys settle on Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), a charismatic dude with a questionable résumé who claims to have been discharged from the army for “unauthorized terrorism.”
| Trailer for Drillbit Taylor. |
Taylor is actually a homeless (or as he terms it “home-free”) habitual liar. He enrolls the boys in his personal physical and mental training regimen, instructing them on the finer points of survival. Of course, it’s all just a ruse to snatch as much silverware, iPods and watches as he can from the kids’ houses (all done under the guise of utilizing said items as impromptu weaponry).
The twist in the tale, minor though it is, comes when Taylor shows up at the high school wearing a “borrowed” suit and is mistaken for a substitute teacher. This gives him an opportunity to romance the boys’ pretty teacher (played by Apatow’s real-life wife, Leslie Mann). Naturally, our con man falls in love, comes to genuinely care for his employers and eventually furnishes this slightly raunchy romp with Apatow’s patented good-natured moral.
If Wilson isn’t quite as laughable since his attempted suicide, he still knows how to inject energy and humor into the silliest of lines (like when he teaches the boys judo, “as in judo know who you’re messing with, homes.”). While Drillbit Taylor is more on the level of Walk Hard than Knocked Up, it’s still a welcome throwback to the high school comedies of the ’80s (My Bodyguard, especially) when nerds and sex jokes ruled theaters.