June 24, 2008

I had a feeling about Drillbit Taylor when it was in theaters. I didn’t know if it was going to be good or bad, so I waited for it to come out on DVD. Man I am glad I did. Drillbit Taylor: Extended Survival Edition has to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot. At no point did I laugh out loud, and during the entire movie all I could think of was how much this movie was like Superbad. In this horrible remix of Superbad you have the same story line with certain parts of the movie switched out to make it its own.

Drillbit Taylor opens up with two really close friends as they get ready for their first day of high school. These guys are identical to the ones in Superbad. You have the shy quiet guy with blonde hair and the outspoken fat guy with a white man fro. As they head out to school they see that they are wearing the same shirt to the first day of school and at that moment they know their day can only end in disaster. Once at school they see that two older guys are picking on a small nerdy guy. They decide to intervene and thus becoming the new guys to be bullied and have gained a new nerd for a friend.

After a couple of days of being swirlied and partaking in peeing tornados, the three of them decide to hire a body guard. This is where Owen Wilson’s character enters the movie. Owen is a homeless former soldier. His days consist of taking a shower on the beach for everyone to see and then he proceeds to a local street where he asks for money. Any money that he does receive, he runs to buy lottery tickets to help fund his dream of living in Canada. After a couple of hours he heads to a local restaurant to meet up with his other homeless friends and eat the food left by others. He finds the job offer from the kids by jumping on some guys’ computer while he went to get his drink from the café.

The reason Drillbit takes the job is so he can scam the kids out of their money and then rob them while they are at school. How he goes about teaching them to set them up is truly genius but in no way funny. Drillbit is a complete fraud and has some funny made up names while he tries to sound super legit. As the movie progresses Drillbit starts to like and begins to want to really help them. To protect them at school Drillbit becomes a substitute. Here is where he falls head over heels for a teacher. After a couple of weeks Drillbit finds who he wants to be and decides that he no longer wants to be a bum and he wants to make something of himself.

Through all the trials and tribulations you find yourself wanting to laugh and wanting more but never get it. It is a great story line and one you want to really get into and just laugh out loud. The only problem is that if you have seen Superbad you can’t help but think that this is a lower budget knock off that doesn’t deliver as many laughs.

Filmmaking: 3
Drillbit Taylor has an interesting story line, but it's one that has been done millions of times. It was way too similar to Superbad in every way, shape, and form. The sets were very generic and plain. There is nothing that really stands out.

Visuals: 8
The picture was very vibrant and crisp. I watched this movie in a regular dvd player on a tube television and it look pretty good. Then I watched it on an upconverter and an LCD television and it looked even more spectacular. Even though they both looked great on each format, you could still notice blemishes here and there.

Sound: 5
This is probably the best category and that is not saying too much. This was an unrated version of the movie, yet the background music was edited. The one liners were pretty good but few and far between. The best part of Drillbit Taylor was the rap off with the school bully, but it was hard to hear what they were saying at times.

Value: 3
Drillbit Taylor has the same extras as any other movie out there. You get a feature-length commentary but no actors are doing it. You have some deleted scenes that are not in the movie for a reason. Then you have a gag reel that was slightly amusing. On the exclusive survival features you have the rap off and some other exclusives that really have no point other than to pad out a weak selection of bonus material. I had to watch this film again just to make sure that it was as bad as I thought and it was, and to be honest it was a little funnier the second time around but still not worth your time or money.

Overall: 3.7
Honestly, Drillbit Taylor isn’t even worth renting. Owen Wilson is the only reason the movie scored higher than a 3, and if you want to see Owen at his best you need to watch Wedding Crashers or even Shanghi Knights. Now I know Seth Rogan wrote the movie and that is probably one of the biggest reasons Drillbit Taylor resembles Superbad, but this seems like a movie that he wrote just to cash in on the success of Superbad. In the end, this movie is identical to Superbad but to tell you the truth it was just "super bad".