Drillbit Taylor (2008)

Owen Wilson is an acquired taste. That's probably the best way to describe the career of this "funny man". Wilson's entire career has been based on roles with other high profile actors such as Ben Stiller, Jackie Chan, even the unbearable Vince Vaughn. As a solo act it seems hard for Wilson to be able to hold up a film, at least a comedy because frankly without someone funny to bounce off of he's not very funny alone. But Behind Enemy Lines proved he could handle a more dramatic role, which I frankly like him better in.

Drillbit Taylor marks Wilson's first real leading comedic role without the support of any other major actors, and frankly it's reason enough to never repeat it again. If you ever thought a script was written by a bunch of chimpanzees, Drillbit Taylor is the proof that's it probably the case. Owen Wilson plays a homeless army deserter named Drillbit Taylor. Drillbit spends his days begging for money on the street corners and eating scraps of food out of the dumpsters with his other hobo friends. His ultimate goal in life is to save up enough cash to fly to Canada, where he believes a better life awaits him. His dreams are about to be fulfilled when he agrees to assist three dorky teenagers seeking a bodyguard to protect them from a psychotic bully. These guys appears to be an easy group to swindle, so Drillbit takes their money and eats their food as he leads them to believe he's a banished black ops solider, interested in protecting them. Eventually Drillbit's tainted history and true lifestyle catch up to him right as he begins to actually start caring about the guys.

Drillbit Taylor is one of those off the wall comedies where nothing makes sense, nothing is relatively close to being realistic, and everything is so beyond ridiculous that it's almost insulting that someone was paid to write it. I'd never heard anything good about this film, but I figured I give it a shot. Surprisingly Drillbit Taylor starts off being fairly amusing and a little promising, but when the film introduces emancipated 18 year old serial killer bully, Filikens, all caution is thrown into the wind and the film starts to become insulting to the viewer's intelligence. Filikins is Richie Rich on steroids with ADD, the character is so annoying and unrealistic that I actually began to grow very aggravated, not only with the character but all the other characters who either seemed oblivious to his actions or too frightened to do anything about them. Overall Drillbit Taylor isn't worth a viewing and is the first time in recent memory that a film, especially a comedy, actually aggravated me rather than entertained me.

4/10