¨There is an alien invasion happening; they are
among us.¨
The Watch had an outstanding comedic cast like
most summer comedies tend to, but the material failed to live up to those
talents once again. I really liked these actors and was hoping the film to be a
huge success, but despite laughing several times I felt this film was missing
something. I found myself laughing throughout several scenes, but at the same
time thinking to myself how ridiculous and predictable the plot and jokes were.
The material isn’t really that good, but we have excellent actors that can make
a mediocre movie into a better one and this was the case. The jokes weren’t as
funny as the performers. I`m still waiting for that one hit comedy of the year
(I haven’t seen Ted yet and am hoping that will be it), but I was definitely disappointed
with The Watch despite not having a terrible time with it. The Watch is one of
those films you might enjoy watching once if you`re really bored, but you will
probably want to stay away from a second viewing. The characters are all common
stereotypes: you have the nerd who wants to please and befriend everyone, the
man child who is always screaming (a character that Will Ferrell made famous),
the sex driven guy with the funny accent, and the tough guy who still lives
with his mother. They all come together once again for this buddy comedy that
mixes the humor with a sci-fi adventure theme that really never works. The
action and the comedy didn’t blend in as well as it did in Pineapple Express
for example, and in my opinion this film was trying to set a familiar tone.
The plot revolves around four guys who decide
to start a neighborhood watch group after a murder takes place in their small
town. Evan (Ben Stiller) is always trying to please people and keeping busy in
the community by starting local clubs and events. He`s also the local manager
of Costco and happily married to Abby (Rosemarie DeWitt) with whom he`s trying
to have a child. When a local guard from Costco is murdered he decides to begin
a neighborhood watch in order to keep everyone safe and find the murderer. The
police in town represented by Sgt. Bressman (Will Forte) are pretty incompetent,
so Evan finds it in his kind heart to help despite not anyone else carrying.
Only three neighbors show up to the first meeting after Evan gives his uninspiring
speech to the community; they are Franklin (Jonah Hill), Bob (Vince Vaughn),
and Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade). The three of them really show up for different
reasons: Bob wants to escape his married life and bond with the guys, Franklin
always wanted to be a police officer but failed his exams, and Jamarcus is the
foreigner who wants to make new friends (and if possible save a beautiful girl
so she can reward him). None of them really know what they are going to go up
against, and the rest of the community think they are a joke. The criminal they
are looking for turns out not to be human, and when they encounter the alien
for the first time they take it upon themselves to protect their neighbors at
all costs.
The film is as ridiculous as the premise sounds
but you will find yourself laughing throughout the film because of the talented
cast working together. One of the funniest scenes for me revolved around the
four guys taking pictures of themselves with an apparently dead alien, but you
can watch this scene in the trailers so I guess it`s not saying much. The film
is really predictable and forgettable but I didn’t find it really awful either.
By tomorrow I will have probably forgot all about it, but for an evening in
which I had nothing to do it was ok. This is perhaps one of Seth Rogen`s worst
work as a screenwriter although he had some help this time and therefore can share
the blame. The director, Akiva Schaffer, really hasn’t had much experience as a
film director since he is mostly known for his direction in Saturday Night Live.
The film itself could have probably worked better as a five minute SNL sketch
than a full feature film. Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller should try to do
something different and move away from their typical roles. I could have said
the same thing about Jonah Hill, but he did try something different in
Moneyball and it completely worked for him, but he came back once again to his
typical role. Richard Ayoade I had not heard of so I can`t say anything on his
behalf, but it pretty much felt to me that all these actors played it safe with
their roles and didn’t take any risks. That is why no one will remember The
Watch came out by the end of the year.
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