Wow. Remember when Ben Stiller used to be funny? Don’t think too long and hard, you might hurt yourself. At one time though, Stiller was a pretty funny dude. C’mon– admit it– “Zoolander”, as goofy as it is…is pretty hilarious. The same goes for Vince Vaughn. He’s another guy that was usually pretty solid even in bad movies. Lately, though, both of these guys seem to be going through the motions…and they aren’t even funny motions.
What a joy we are treated to in “The Watch”, in which Ben Stiller stars as Evan Trautwig, a convoluted portrayal of just about every character he plays these days. Evan has a pretty great life– or so it seems. He is happily married to a woman who constantly wants to have sex, in the hopes she can have a baby and they can start a family. Unfortunately for her, Evan, the proud manager at the local CostCo., he spends his time getting involved in just about every possible extra-curricular activity he can get involved in.
His life takes a sudden and dramatic turn when one of his Costco employees is brutally murdered. Of course, Evan uses it as yet another reason to avoid his wife’s advances and makes it his mission to find the killer. Realizing his small town Ohio neighborhood is possibly in danger, he forms a Neighborhood Watch, which doesn’t quite catch on with his neighbors. Mostly because nearly everyone thinks he’s an idiot. Join the club. He does manage to get Bob (Vince Vaughn), a guy in need of some male bonding; Franklin (Jonah Hill), a lonely wanna be cop reject who lives with his mother; and Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade), a bizarre British dude, who is refreshingly honest and speaks his mind. Thinking they are simply looking for a killer, this bumbling group of misfits instead find their hometown grown zero for an alien invasion.
Director Akiva Schaffer, a former “Saturday Night Live” writer, whose previous credits included directing the Andy Samberg flick, “Hotrod”, delivers an uneven and for the most part unfunny movie that thinks it’s a hell of a lot funnier than it ever is. It’s a shame too, because the script was written by Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg (“Superbad”), so you’d think there would be a little more original inspiration but it’s clear that the director failed to inspire anything out of the considerable talent he had to work with.
Vince Vaughn, where have you gone? The dude was, at one point, a solid comic lead, but now seems happy sleep walking through his roles. He is especially annoying this time around, yelling out his dialogue for no apparent reason and making everyone on screen feel uncomfortable. The same goes for Stiller, who is usually likable but here, not so much. Even Jonah Hill, fresh off an Oscar nomination and the hilarious “21 Jump Street” just looks like he’s trying too hard. Again, the script gives them nothing so points for trying at least.
Richard Ayoade (“The IT Crowd”) manages to be the one bright and shining light in this bleak effort but after a few scene-stealing moments he’s relegated to a ridiculous twist that is anything but inspired. That really is the problem with the whole movie. It’s all just uninspired and flat. There are funny moments but for the most part it seems like it’s trying to take advantage of the R-rating by dropping as many f-bombs and sex jokes as it can.
Then there is the alien invasion, which you’d think would be the nail in the coffin. While I still argue this movie was always about aliens, it would be more interesting if they would focus on that plot thread rather than the abusive and unfunny jokes being spewed by Stiller and Vaughn.
“The Watch” is vulgar and tiresome and worst of all, unfunny. It’s the perfect example of what can go wrong when you get a bunch of funny guys together who aren’t as funny as they think they are.
Check out some of my other movie reviews at Examiner.com.
Follow me at:
“The Watch”– red band theatrical trailer