Drillbit Taylor

41

Paramount Pictures (102 minutes)
and Steve Brill
Owen Wilson , Alex Frost , Casey Boersma , Dylan Boersma , Troy Gentile , and Nate Hartley

Rating: PG-13 for crude sexual references throughout, strong bullying, language, drug references and partial nudity

Summary: Ryan, Wade, and Emmit attend their first day at high school and they're pumped...until they meet up with Filkins, a school bully who comes off like a little Hannibal Lecter. Before they become completely engulfed in Filkins' reign of terror, they seek out some protection by placing an ad in Soldier of Fortune magazine. Their best response (and the cheapest) comes from Drillbit Taylor, a down-on-his luck soldier of fortune who lives a homeless--he likes to say "home-free"--existence on the beach. He enrolls them in some physical and mental training. (Paramount Pictures)

Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News:
(75) Even if this movie doesn't quite hit the highs of its predecessor, it's nice to know that there are still filmmakers ready to respect the eternal struggles of freaks and geeks.

Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer:
(63) There are winning scenes between Wilson and the three teens as they train in various martial arts (like Mexican Judo - "as in Ju-don't know who you're messing with!") and get tips from clips of "Fight Club" and "The Untouchables."

Ryan Stewart
Premiere:
(63) Presents nothing blindingly new for fans of Apatow- or Sandler-style humor and when watching it, one can hear the faint rustling of old scripts being yanked from drawers for a timely cash-in, but with his high-school memories now hopefully exhausted, maybe Rogen has a good college yarn to spin.

Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor:
(58) This latest whiffle ball from Team Apatow is a mildly amusing comedy.

Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune:
(50) "Superbad” got a deserved R rating for its unmitigated and gleeful raunch. Drillbit Taylor is cleaner in mouth but far uglier in spirit. Wilson and Mann do what they can to tone it up, but their scenes belong to a different film, and a fresher one.

Ann Hornaday
Washington Post:
(50) Owen Wilson phones it in with Drillbit Taylor, a by-the-numbers teen comedy.

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