For those of you who never made it to the theater to see Owen Wilson’s latest comedy, it is newly released on DVD. The Extended Survival Edition includes commentary, an interview with the writers, 13 deleted & extended scenes, gag reels, line reels, and a host of “exclusive survival features,” including an extended ending. In essence, this makes it way better than seeing it in the theater, which is a good thing.
Drillbit Taylor is the story of a homeless man who cons some nerdy high school freshman into hiring him as their bodyguard. While collecting his meager pay from them, he manages to loot the house, not show up to help them, and fall in love while posing as a substitute teacher. Sound like there’s a little too much crammed into this movie? You’d be right. The first half of this movie is collection of nearly random comedy scenes and one-liners. Just when you are about to give up though, the movie takes an expected turn as Drillbit’s “heart grew two sizes” (as Dr. Seuss would say) and he comes of age. What you don’t expect to happen is for the movie to actually get better, but it does. As a matter of fact, by the time you get about three-fourths of the way through this movie it’s actually really enjoyable.
Overall this is predictable and mostly boring. Like I said though, the last fourth of the movie is good enough that it almost makes up for the early tomfoolery. What makes this truly worth your time are the extras. I’m not a big fan of extras but the interview with writers Kristofor Brown and Seth Rogen is really interesting and the “exclusive survival features” are pretty hilarious as well, especially the “rap off.” That kid should make a record. Is this as Shanghai Knights? Nope. Does it flat out suck? Nope. It lies somewhere in between though so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Reviewed by Mark Fisher
