Drillbit Taylor by Paul Bullock

Ever since they had Steve Carrell discover the joys of life beyond action figures and comic books in 2005’s breakaway hit The 40-Year Old Virgin, Seth Rogan and Judd Apatow have dominated modern American comedy. The duo, who work variously as producer, director, actor and writer, have been credited as bringing a much-needed sense of freshness to comedy by blending the requisite laughs with big emotional beats in films such as Knocked Up and Superbad. Their latest offering, Drillbit Taylor, on which Rogan acts as co-writer and Apatow as producer, seemed sure to continue this trend, but instead it marks their first out-and-out dud.

Our three main characters are high-school kids Wade (Nate Hartley), a subdued geek looking for love; Ryan (Troy Gentile), an obnoxious fat guy trying to be cool, and Emmit (David Dorfman), a scrawny nerd so geeky even the geeks look down on him. Sound familiar? In both personality and physical appearance, this group is strikingly similar to the one in Superbad, and critics have been quick to dub the film Superbad: The Junior Years. However, there is one big difference. Rather than booze and girls, these kids are looking for protection, particularly from school bully Filkins (Alex Frost), and hire homeless con artist Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) to act as their bodyguard.

80s legend John Hughes created the story and it's in this wish-fulfilment bodyguard premise that his presence is clearly felt, not necessarily for the better. With the exception of The Breakfast Club, Hughes’s films are escapist teen fantasies which require a heavy dose of suspension of disbelief. Rogan and Apatow, however, despite their overbearing crassness, come from more sophisticated, grounded comedy backgrounds, their films playing as well to adults as they do to teenagers. The pair try their hardest to enforce those sensibilities on the story, but Hughes's pen is always present, and the resulting clash of tones makes for an uneven, frustrating and often laugh-free experience.

In an bid to compensate, Rogan and director Steve Brill make the bullying scenes funny, but this only adds to the film‘s flaws. An early montage sees the boys attacked in the toilets and forced to walk the corridors with wet patches on their pants. A later sequence, featuring an almost murderous Filkins attempting to ram them over with his car, plays like something from a Looney Tunes cartoon, and the climactic battle takes in samurai swords, identical bowling shirts and disembodied fingers. A certain mean-spiritedness has always been present in the Rogan/Apatow films (see the mockery of McLovin in Superbad), but the portrayal of torment as humorous renders it explicit for the first time and leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.

Thankfully, a handful of one-liners and a rap-off contest raise a few chuckles, while the cast are relatable and watchable. Seen on screen for the first time since his hospitalisation last year, Wilson is the star of the show, his laconic charm, irrepressible comic timing and inherent melancholy perfect for the title role, but the kids give fine turns too. In the latest of a string of high-profile performances (he's twice played a young Jack Black), Gentile is amusingly obnoxious and surely a star in the making, while the nasal Dorfman is almost unrecognisable from The Ring and Hartley, effectively playing Michael Cera's Superbad role, brings realistic charm and geekiness to Wade.

Largely, however, this is uninspired stuff. A film caught between two sets of creative minds, Drillbit Taylor provides neither the laughs nor the emotion to work as the heart-warming coming of age tale it strives to be, and will more than likely leave the fans Rogan and Apatow have built up through the last few years thoroughly disappointed.