Drillbit Taylor is a forgotten comedy from the late 2000s, and it’s one that I think you’ll rarely ever find on any “must-see comedies” lists. The only reason I ever even watched it is because I’m a fan of Judd Apatow, and the movie was produced through his company Apatow Productions, so I wanted to give it a shot. I don’t think it’s a bad movie by any means, so anyone that is curious about it should give it a shot, but it’s definitely nothing spectacular.

The movie centers around three boys that are entering their first year of high school. They immediately catch the attention of the school bullies, and wind up getting picked on, beat up, and humiliated every day. High school has become hell for these kids, and so they end up coming up with an unorthodox solution to their problem: hiring a personal bodyguard. Enter Drillbit Taylor, a homeless man that’s looking for quick money so that he can move to Canada, where life will apparently be better for him. Drillbit fakes all of his credentials, acting like he knows way more than he actually does. But the kids buy it, and so they end up having a homeless man fake teaching them how to take down their bullies.

I like the premise enough, and I don’t have any real problems with the movie on paper. The movie has a lot going for it, but for some reason it just doesn’t end up working that often. I’m not sure if it’s more on the side of the writing, directing, or acting, or maybe a mixture of the three, but the movie just never fully clicks for me, and so the jokes don’t land as hard as they should. Still, this is one of those mindlessly fun entertaining movies, and so I think that there are worse ways you could spend your time. Like I said, really don’t go out of your way to watch this, since it’s far from essential viewing, but if anything about it strikes your fancy and you have the opportunity to watch it, it’s really not that bad.

3/5