It's a time-honored tradition. Kids get picked on. Authority figures are of little or no help. The abused are forced to seek out a protector.
"Drillbit Taylor," another entry from the tortured-teen universe of Judd Apatow (TV's "Freaks and Geeks," “Superbad”), follows a pair of high school freshmen as their hopes for adolescent reinvention hit a serious obstacle in the form of a psycho-in-the-making.
In attempting to update the bully genre for the 21st century, screenwriters Kristofer Brown and Seth Rogen (co-writer and co-star of "Superbad"), along with director Steven Brill, have exhumed the bones of such 1980s films as "My Bodyguard" and "Three O'Clock High" and laid on some modern embellishments resulting in an unremarkable patchwork comedy starring Owen Wilson.
On their first day at McKinley High -- a nod to where the "Freaks" matriculated -- Wade (Nate Hartley), a gentle, bespectacled beanpole, and Ryan (Troy Gentile), a portly skeptic, make tragically inauspicious debuts. If inadvertently wearing matching shirts isn't enough to draw a target on the boys' foreheads, Wade's meek attempt at rescuing the pint-sized Emmit ("The Ring's" David Dorfman) from hallway locker entombment draws the attention of the crazed Filkins (Alex Frost, who made his debut as one of the picked-on kids who turn to violence in Gus Van Sant's Columbine- inspired drama, “Elephant”).
Hartley and Gentile are extremely likable, and better-than-average dialogue in the early going sets up some unfulfilled expectations of a better movie. Gentile, who has twice played a young Jack Black onscreen ("Nacho Libre," "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny"), has curly hair, generous proportions and robust charm similar to Rogen and actor Jonah Hill ("Knocked Up," "Superbad"), which raises the question: Does Apatow (who produced the film with Susan Arnold and Donna Arkoff Roth) have a really strange greenhouse somewhere that he is growing these guys?
Emmit attaches himself to the duo as a wobbly third wheel and the daily beatdowns at the hands of Filkins and his equally sadistic buddy Ronnie (Josh Peck) lead the put-upon trio to seek professional protection. A want ad produces a montage of mercenaries (which includes a couple of amusing cameos) and provides them with the only bodyguard they can afford -- Drillbit Taylor (Wilson), an ex-soldier-turned-panhandler who lives in the bushes on a bluff overlooking the Pacific.
