For the past few years the production machine that is Judd Apatow has been turning out comedy hit after hit (Anchorman, Talandega Nights, 40-Year Old Virgin, Superbad, etc…). Drillbit Taylor is another one of those Apatow produced movies that has hit the theaters, written by one half of the writing team behind Superbad and one of Judd’s regular stars Seth Rogen and Kristofor Brown. But is this movie another hit or does it fall flat on its face? Read on and find out.
Owen Wilson stars as a beach bum soldier of fortune who is hired by three high school freshmen who are being tormented by the resident school bullies. And thats the plot in a nutshell, not much going on, in fact there isnt much going on here at all. What couldve been an unofficial prequel of some sorts of Rogen’s previous High School comedy Superbad, Drillbit Taylor totally falls flat, while offering up a few laughs they are few and far between. Not to mention is a totally unrealistic and clichéd view of the High School expierence (I mean when have you ever actually seen someone shoved into a locker) and the Bullies are borderline psychotic’s and shouldve been locked in prison long before they even reached High School.
As with previous Apatow produced and/or directed movies Drillbit Taylor is packed with special features.
• Audio Commentary with director Steven Brill, Kristofor Brown, and stars Troy Gentile, Nate Hartley, & David Dorfman.
• The Writers Get a Chance to Talk: Seth Rogen & Kristofor Brown
• Deleted & Extended Scenes
• Line-O-Rama
• Gag Reel
• Rap Off shows the kids working with a rap coach to develop their skills
• Sprinkler Day shows the filming of the fire alarm scene
• Bully profiles the kids who play the bullies
• Directing Kids is a tribute to the short attention spans of child actors
• The Real Don: Danny McBride is a series of relatively funny interviews wit actor Danny McBride.
All the special features are presented in HD which is an added bonus though while nice isnt really needed for a movie like this. And the special features on a whole are all very funny, but are pretty much without substance (with the exception given to the audio commentary and writers feature)
- Rating: 3 out of 5
The folks at Paramount have given Drillbit Taylor a VC-1 encoded 1080p video transfer while it is highly detailed, the film overall is not highly stylized it is a fairly straight foward looking film but the Disc does a great job in recreating the colors vividly. The same can be said with the Audio portion of the disc as well. We are given an average and totally suitable 5.1 Dolby Digital True HD track that does a good job of seperating the voices from the music and ambient effects.
- Rating: 3 out of 5
An average disc for an average movie, while it does have some laughs it on a whole does not end up on the top end of Apatow’s cataloge of movies.
- Overall Rating: 3 out of 5
Film and Features: 3
Technical Specs: 3
Overall Review: 3
Studio: Paramount
Genre: Comedy
Aspect: 2.35:1 (VC-1, 1080p)
Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital True HD
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