Three geeks find themselves in need of some protection from the school bully, so they hire a bodyguard. Owen Wilson has a certain charm as the less-than-honest, homeless “Drillbit,” but the film treads some familiar ground.
Ryan (Troy Gentile) and Wade (Nate Hartley) think that their first day of high school is going to allow them to reinvent themselves. Both are what would be called geeks with Ryan being overweight and Wade a rail thin weakling.
Their worst fears are realized when they both wear the same shirt and they find that high school is just as horrible for them as junior high. They attempt to rescue a fellow geek, the uber-geek Emmett (David Dorfman), from being shoved into a lock by some bullies.
The bully Filkins (Alex Frost) and his underling Ronnie (Josh Peck) then make it their mission to make the trio’s live miserable. They approach the principal about Filkins but their pleas fall upon deaf ears.
They then decide to hire a bodyguard to protect them from Filkins and settle on “Drillbit” Taylor (Owen Wilson) because he’s the cheapest. He then takes them under his wing, but his protection might not be all that its cracked up to be.
First off, the Blu-ray contains the extended survival edition around seven minutes of new footage. Since I didn’t catch the theatrical run I can’t tell you what’s been added back into the film, but I didn’t see anything of an obvious nature that would’ve caused it to be over a PG-13.
The Blu-ray only features the extended cut of the film where the DVD survival edition gives you the option to play both the extended and theatrical cuts. However, you get the same special features of that DVD version but in high definition.
Drillbit is nothing really extraordinary in the comedy cannon and borrows its idea from 1980’s My Bodyguard (even acknowledging this with a funny cameo from that film’s co-star Adam Baldwin).
There are some funny moments but the film really doesn’t do much to set itself from many other buddy comedies. These buddies do feel like they’re the characters from Superbad starting their high school years. Not surprising since the film was co-written by Seth Rogen and produced by Judd Apatow (who is making a cottage industry of these sort of comedies).
Owen Wilson sweats a musky charm as the homeless Drillbit looking to cash in on some kid’s desperate attempts to rid themselves of the schoolyard bully. However you know that he’ll bond with them before the film is over and all will be well.
The trio of geeks really do feel like Seth, Evan, and Fogell from Superbad but they do have personalities of their own in this film and the young actors perform admirably as well. What does get in the way is the similarity to other films and the appearance of the film being on autopilot as far as these sorts of comedies go. Hell, what do I know though – my kids have watched it twice.
Drillbit Taylor is presented in 1080p high definition transfer (2.35:1). Special features include a commentary by director Steven Brill, co-writer Kristofor Brown, and actors Troy Gentile, Nate Hartley, and David Dorfman. The rest of the special features are presented in high definition. “The Writers get a chance to Talk” is a 14-minute conversation with writers Brown and Seth Rogen. Next are 23 minutes of deleted and extended scenes.
The 4-minute “Line-o-rama” is improvisations and alternate readings of some of the lines. The 3-minute “Panhandling” is similar in that it offers some alternate gags to those scenes. Next is a 4-minute gag reel, 2 minutes of “Kids on the Loose” with the child actors, and a 3-minute bit with Brill on directing the kids.
The 2 minute “Super Billy” chats with child actor Billy O’Neill, the 3 minute “Bully” spends time with the two villainous actors, and the 3 minute “Bodyguard” looks at filming the scene where various guards audition, the 90 second “Trading Punches” looks at the fight training, the 3 minute “Rap off” has Gentile sit down with his rap instructor(!), the 3 minute “Sprinkler Day” looks at filming that scene, the 7 minute “Filkins Fight” shows how they shot the climatic battle, the 2 minute “Life of Don” looks at the vagrant character, and the 5 minute “Real Don” looks at Danny McBride who plays Don.
Finally you get two trailers for the film (2 minute International Trailer and 2 minute “Bodyguard” trailer).
Drillbit Taylor is not a terrible film and offers some good goofy performances, but it suffers from familiarity in the plot and concepts of the film. It will entertain, but it’s no classic.
Drillbit Taylor (Extended Survival Edition) [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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