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It wasn’t just for lack of clean shirts that I chose to wear my Superbad T-shirt to the screening of Drillbit Taylor. In fact, my wardrobe choice was carefully planned—because I had the feeling that I was heading out to see Superbad’s prequel.
Like Superbad, Drillbit Taylor is the story of three pretty typical high school losers: the fat kid (Ryan, played by Troy Gentile), the scrawny kid (Wade, played by Nate Hartley), and the geek (Emmit, played by David Dorfman). Though all three kids see high school as their chance to start over—to rule the school, as it were—they become bully bait on their very first day. And once they attract the attention of the school bully, Filkins (Alex Frost), there’s just no escaping him.
Unable to defend themselves, the three decide to hire a bodyguard to protect them from Filkins. They soon discover, though, that bodyguards don’t come cheap—and the only one they can afford is a scrawny guy named Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson). He claims to be ex-military, though, and he’ll work cheap—so the guys hire him. But what they don’t realize is that Drillbit is just a desperate homeless guy who intends to take their money and head to Canada.
While both Superbad and Drillbit Taylor are comedies about geeky high school guys (and they were both produced by Judd Apatow and co-written by Seth Rogen), that’s pretty much where the similarities end. Drillbit is a completely different kind of comedy. It’s not as outrageous (or as obnoxious) as Superbad. Instead, it’s much more innocent—and it has the courage to trade some of today’s typically crude teenage humor for a little bit of heart.
Unlike the three kids in Superbad, who just want to get drunk and get laid, the three kids in Drillbit just want to get by. And that’s what makes the characters so lovable. Though their acting is far from perfect (Hartley, for instance, always looks like he’s fighting a serious case of the giggles), they’re just so cute and so painfully geeky that you can’t help but love them. And while Wilson gets top billing as the title character, the kids make the movie. That’s not to say that I don’t like Owen Wilson—because I do. But his character, while entertaining, just isn’t all that lovable this time around.
Though it has its share of flaws and plot holes and other picky little problems, Drillbit Taylor is at least consistently cute—and consistently funny. And you don’t even have to be a geeky high school boy to appreciate the humor. So if you still remember hiding in fear of the school bully, you’re sure to get a laugh or two out of this lovable-loser comedy.
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