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Saturday, July 28, 2012

MOVIE REVIEW
The Watch
 They're Watching You But Who On Earth Is Watching Them?

Richard Ayoade as Jamarcus, Vince Vaughn as Bob, Ben Stiller as Evan and Jonah Hill as Franklin in Akiva Schaffer's comedy "The Watch".  Melinda Sue Gordon/20th Century Fox
    
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Funny, foolish and utterly wayward, "The Watch", Akiva Schaffer's comedy, known as "Neighborhood Watch" prior to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin last February, has many problems as a film, not the least of which is a story making little sense.  Watching Mr. Schaffer's movie is like saying you went to a boxing fight and saw a hockey game break out.  "The Watch", which opened nationwide yesterday in the U.S. and Canada, mashes comedy and sci-fi genres very uneasily, in a fashion similar to the odd mix of alien story and western in "Cowboys And Aliens", which stumbled awkwardly last summer.

At a Costco a man is killed, and in response Evan (Ben Stiller), a uptight, dictatorial sort, recruits a motley trio of misfits for his Neighborhood Watch program in an effort to find the killer.  Bob (Vince Vaughn) insists on beers and meetings at his house in between forbidding his daughter to date any man whose genitalia just might be bigger than his.  "I'll rip his dick off!", Bob declares.  "You'll need two hands, Bobby," advises the English-accented Jamarcus ("Submarine" director Richard Ayoade), the sole black member of the otherwise white watch group.  Franklin (Jonah Hill), a failed police officer applicant, rounds out the quirky quartet.  They uncover an alien force that creates havoc but is it behind the murder?

Avenging the murder of a civilian however soon takes a back seat, submerged by "incorrect" humor that isn't amusing at times, xenophobia that plays on stereotypes, and women as props for juvenile male shenanigans.  Rosemarie DeWitt ("Your Sister's Sister", "Margaret") plays Evan's wife, and a subplot involving their predicament is weak and misplaced.  For every laugh there are two or three missteps in "The Watch", which looks as if it's thrown in everything and the kitchen sink for good measure in the hope something will stick.  The comedy in "The Watch" isn't smart; it's sloppy retread material.  Much of the film is easily predictable, and its revelations I correctly guessed in advance. 

Mr. Ayoade makes his feature film acting debut and has one or two good moments, though there's little in the way of innovation in a script written by Jared Stern, Evan Goldberg and the actor Seth Rogen ("Take This Waltz", "50/50").  Mr. Hill isn't his usual snappy self; he's more like he was in "The Sitter" last year than he was in this year's "21 Jump Street", a film that had wit, delirious comic fun, sharp intelligence and a tight screenplay.

As I admittedly laughed at "The Watch" I saw a film unsure of what it wanted to be.  Is it an extra-terrestrial adventure?  A sex comedy?  A buddy movie?  A film about parenting?  A 1950s sci-fi about "Not In My Back Yard"?  It is bizarre.  Mr. Schaffer's film is a series of sketches that don't connect or relate to each other in any appreciable way.  Only the live-wired Mr. Vaughn makes any (or rather some) of this mess remotely entertaining.  The film resorts to lazy gags involving bodily fluids, as well as horror reminiscent of far better films like "Attack The Block".  You'd think that "The Watch" would dare to be fresh and invigorating but instead it is tired and familiar.

"The Watch" exists as a bare-bones spectacle; its reason to be is for pure absurdity's sake but there's a lack of care about how the laughs are delivered and the story executed.  The same joke appears to be repeated like a bad punch line on groundhog day.  While parts of the film are uproariously funny, sometimes in comedy laughs alone aren't enough.  Ingenuity and a fresh approach also count for something.

Also with: Erin Moriarty, Will Forte, Mel Rodriguez, Nicholas Braun, Doug Jones, R. Lee Ermey.

 "The Watch" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for some strong sexual content including references, pervasive language and violent images.  The film's running time is one hour and 42 minutes. 

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