Drillbit Taylor (Unrated Extended Survival Edition) | Jacquie Kubin saw, Comedy | DONNE TEMPO
Drillbit Taylor (Unrated Extended Survival Edition)
July/06/08 08:25 PM Filed in: Jacquie Kubin
saw | Comedy
The premise promised 109 minutes, plus bonus features, of diversion wrapped in a cloak of the oh-so-cool Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) helping a trio of nerds, Wade (Nate Hartley), Ryan (Troy Gentile) and Emmit (David Dorfman) traverse the mean highways of high school.
Who can’t relate to that?
Alas, this could have been the perfect vehicle for Wilson to flex his comedy muscle.
The dramatic setting, high school and the reality of the senior picking on the freshman, provided a great frame for Wilson to show the empathy, concern and pacifism that is inherent to his characters.
(A side note, one of the reasons we loved him so much in “Night at the Museum” is that he stepped away from his surfer-dude persona to raise a little ruckus.)
Wilson taking command of this film could have made it a great film, if only director Steven Brill would have believed in his actors (that is why they hire them, to act) and allowed the story to be played straight, without always going for the gags.
I mean, when Filkins (Alex Frost) is antagonizing the young kids, do we really believe he is going to be driving a BMW as if he was on the speedway through this sleepy little town?
Yet, we can believe and cheer on Wade and Ryan as they try to learn how to fight by watching video games and then, step into the backyard for some very tentative fisticuffs.
Unfortunately the movie relies more on the unbelievable speedway chases (as though three kids, one very out of shape, and the other very under shape could avoid a psychopath in a BMW) than the more realistic moments of life that are often really very fun, if not in sad, meaningful ways.
And this seems to be happening a lot in comedies today. In Walk Hard the Dewey Cox Story, I had great hopes that John C. Reilly would rise above the vehicle to deliver the smart, comedic role I know he is capable of. But nope. Didn’t happen.
One most wonder if it is that Hollywood does not believe that audiences are smart enough to “get it” without slapstick and steroidal sexual innuendo or that directors are so bent on not missing every cheap laugh, they forget to allow actors to act.
This movie could have been classic because we the audience just can’t accept Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) as the homeless class.
He is too good looking, too well spoken and there is not a bit of psychosis, drug addiction or displacement about him. He just isn’t stereo–typical homeless.
He doesn’t hang on the beach, so he hasn’t dropped out for the waves.
He prizes the collection of personal possessions, so he isn’t the disenfranchised.
He is able to take on the mannerisms and classroom requirements of the high school the aforementioned youth attend. So he obviously has some education.
All of these things, along with the very attractive Mr. Wilson, make for a very good movie that has audiences questioning very early on how he ended up sleeping under tarps in the park.
Which would keep us involved in the other story, how he helps these young teens – at first for personal gain and then out of a sense of humanistic decency, great story arc there, how he gets the girl despite his lack of a personal shower (great beach shower scene, by the way) and redeems himself, becoming a new member of accepted society and on the path, it would seem, to life, love, and living in a real house.
Unfortunately all those great story arcs are first tramped and then buried by an unending display of sophomoric attempts at humor including lots of “that’s gotta hurt” groin kicks and more than questionable hazing pranks pulled the young trios nemesis Filkins (Alex Frost) and his less than that brilliant partner, Ronnie (Josh Peck).
I truly hope the future brings Wilson a better vehicle for his talents. He deserves to have a film that allows him to step from the typecast rut he seems to be walking in.
Drillbit Taylor Extended Edition on Blu-Ray provides more for the viewer. Whether that is a good thing or not could be open for debate. I found the extended version could easily have shaved off a good 10-15 minutes without degrading the film.
The Goods: The Extra features are becoming all too common. There is the feature length commentary grack with director Steven Brill, co-writer/co-producer Kristofor Brown that keep a steady stream of anecdotes about the movie and deleted scenes that failed to make even this extended cut.
Actors Troy Gentile, Nate Hartely and Avid Dorfman join in and it is interesting to hear the young actors chime in on the film but I don’t understand the pregnant pause the precedes Owen Wilson joining the discussion.
The Bads: I completely did not get the feature “The Writers Get to Talk” in which Rogen and Brown, via telephone, phone in their contribution as behind-the-scenes stills plays.
I could not even watch this. If they were so unenthused over their participation in the film to spend time on time, then I am too unenthused to watch.
Of course a comedy of this ilk will have its deleted scenes and it looks like there were plenty of hijinks left over – 19 scenes that they felt were worthy of the obligatory deleted scenes file.
I don’t know about you, but bloopers used to be those little moments caught on tape, that were unscripted and very hilarious. They either showed us that favorite actors were very human or those “moments-of-madness” that made us feel we were getting a sneak peak behind the scenes.
Now things that were deemed worthy of the cutting room floor end up in the deleted scenes. There is a reason most of them are deleted, so why are we watching them here? And those moments of spontaneity seem to have become too scripted.
Above and Beyond: One feature I did enjoy was watching actor Danny McBride discuss his character, Don in “The Real Don: Danny McBride. It was fun to get to know this secondary actor a bit better. I hope to see him in future films. His deadpan persona works well against Wilson’s ne’re-do-well characters.