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MOVIE REVIEW

Drillbit Taylor: Budget Bodyguard

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

Reviewed by: David Criswell, Ph.D.
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating: Extremely Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Teens
Genre: Comedy
Length: 1 hr. 42 min.
Year of Release: 2008
USA Release: March 21, 2008 (wide—2,700 theaters)
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Relevant Issues
Copyright, Paramount Pictures

BULLIES—When someone picks on my child, should I tell him to fight back or turn the other cheek? Answer

Teen Qs™—Christian Answers for teenagers
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Featuring Leslie Mann, Alex Frost, Josh Peck, Owen Wilson, Danny R. McBride, Valerie Tian, Troy Gentile, Matt Walsh, Jack Salvatore Jr., Jennifer Lawrence, See all »
Director Steven Brill
Without a Paddle
Producer Judd Apatow, Susan Arnold, Kristofor Brown, Donna Roth, Richard Vane, Desiree Van Til
Distributor
Distributor: Paramount Pictures Corporation. Trademark logo.
Paramount Pictures Corporation
, a subsidiary of ViacomCBS

“You get what you pay for.”

This easter weekend did not feature any Biblical epics, nor (apparently) any family films. I thought that “Drillbit Taylor” might fit in with the later, but I was sorely mistaken. The plot of “Drillbit Taylor” seemed as if it could not fail, and teamed with rising star Owen Wilson, it certainly looked promising, but reality hits hard. “Drillbit Taylor” fails on almost every possible level; especially the family-friendly level.

The story of Drillbit revolves around a group of kids who are the victims of school bullies. They promptly decide to hire a bodyguard to protect them, but… as the ad says… “you get what you pay for.” Sounds good. Right? Wrong. First of all, “Drillbit…” is a crude comedy featuring several scenes of rear nudity as Drillbit bathes naked on the beach, several scenes of urination including people urinating on one another, numerous sexual innuendos, implies sexual intercourse on several occasions, between 65 and 91 obscene words (according to those who count these words) including the s___ word and a___ word, and, of course, violence galore. In one scene, someone's pinky is even cut off (which was supposed to be funny). The character of Drillbit is also bad, as he is a liar and con artist and thief who tries to steal money from these kids. Of course, we all know that his heart is softened, and he eventually helps the kids with a predictable, cliched, and violent ending.

It is hard to review a movie that has so little good to say about it. There were no role models with whom the audience could sympathize. Although we could sympathize with the victims of bullies, we ultimately find nothing funny about their predicaments nor the resolutions to it, which are remarkably unfunny and predictable.

“Drillbit Taylor” is a good example of how Hollywood can ruin a good idea with crude humor and juvenile ramblings that look as if they were written by the teenage bullies who were in the film. The movie might have been good had it been done right with someone like Chuck Norris in the lead role. Owen Wilson may be carving a place for himself in modern comedies, but he had better start reading the scripts all the way through and make better choices, or he could be relegated to making these kinds of movies for a long time.

Violence: Heavy / Profanity: Heavy / Sex/Nudity: Heavy

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Positive
Positive—Me and my family watched this movie 3 times. even though it did have quit a bit of cussing the humor made up for it. it had no nudity all you saw was Owen Wilson’s butt, everbody has one? I wouldn't recomend it for kids depending on the maturity. but it was funny.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3
Christopher, age 19
Neutral
Neutral—I was really disappointed with this movie, I didn't find it funny or clever, it was boring.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 2
Hayley, age 27
Comments from young people
Neutral—When I saw the preview of this movie, I thought it looked hilarious! When I saw it in theaters, it was funny but not half as funny as it looked. I was actually disappointed because Owen Wilson is usually very funny but not as much in this one… sorry!!!
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 3½
Matt, age 13
Negative—I went to see this movie with a friend thinking it would be a harmless comedy, but we both came out embarrassed to be there. The kids in this film had no business swearing and making as many inappropriate remarks as they did. I do not recommend this movie to anyone.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 1
Heaven, age 15
Negative—I went to see Drillbit Taylor excepting funny scenes, good acting, and a crazy story… At least I got the crazy story. It was advertised on Nick and one of the characters is Josh Peck (Drake and Josh tv series). And since he hasn't been in any non-family movie I figured Drillbit Taylor would be clean fun. I was wrong. Drillbit Taylor is a disturbing and perverted movie from beginning to end. It wasn't worth my money or my time. I had brought my boyfriend and was sitting by him as numerous comments about sex were thrown at us. It made the situation very awkward and made me embarrassed because I had wanted to see it. On top of the heap of sexual references throughout the film, it had a vast amount of cussing. It wasn't just a few words here and there. Foul language was thrown in where ever possible. It really wasn't even that funny. I think I laughed maybe five times throughout the entire movie.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 1½
Agena Leona, age 15
Neutral—I went to see this movie thinking it would be a great family comedy because I saw an advertisement on Nick. My whole family wanted to see it so we decided to. After seeing this movie, we were slightly disappointed in it. It was very inappropriate in many ways.

Language: I think there was a bad word in every single scene I saw. But not only did the grownups say bad words, the children also say bad words and there parents went right along along with there own children cussing. The worst cussing seen was when the fat kid and one of the bullies had a wrap off and there was a cuss word in about every sentence.

Sex/Nudity: There were a few scenes of nudity where Drillbit was taking a shower on the beach. There was also a seen where the teacher and Drillbit have sex off screen. You just get the impression but you can tell that they did.

Violence: There was a little bit of violence in the movie. It was mostly fist fights with no blood. The most violence was when one of the bullies throws a sword at Drillbit's pinky and it falls off.

Even though this movie was offensive, it was also extremely funny. I think I laughed throughout the whole movie. I would not take someone who gets easily offended or any child under the age of 12 to see this movie though. I would recommend this movie to anyone else though if you want a good laugh and don't get offended easily. …
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4
Jonathan Coleman, age 12
Movie Critics
…crass sensibilities (albeit without the f-words)… contains lots of testicle jokes and a little bit of heart. …
Paul Asay, Plugged In
…a sad and creepy comedy… and a uniquely laugh-free execution…
Jay Stone, Canwest News Service
…an unremarkable patchwork comedy… ‘Drillbit Taylor’ gradually caves in to a multitude of conventions capped by an entirely predictable climax.
Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times
…Not many laughs in this sophomoric, poorly acted excuse for a movie… full of the groin hits and urination-saturation situations guaranteed to produce hilarity—in lower primates. …
Barry Paris, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
…it lacks any punch either as a comedy or as a life lesson…
Phil Boatwright, Preview Family Movie and TV Review
…very funny, a bit crude and prone to veering in unexpected directions… This is a teen comedy, so expect some crude sex talk and imaginative bully-on-victim violence. …
Julie E. Washington, Cleveland Plain Dealer