RATING: PG-13

GENRE: Comedy

RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2008

RUNNING TIME: 102 minutes

VIOLENCE FACTOR: There is extensive bullying on display, comic mode or not. And a good share of fighting.

BAD WORDS: A number of obscenities and sexual references.

RACY?: There is momentary partial nudity at one point.

GRANDS:

CRITIQUE:
In Drillbit Taylor, the geeks don't inherit the earth. But at least they get back at their schoolyard tormentors, providing viewers a cathartic revenge of the nerds meant to be nostalgically amusing for grandparents and timely and satisfying for grandchildren.

Pity, then, that this disjointed comedy is two different movies never in synch. On the first day of school, three high school frosh are picked on by the school's twisted resident bully. In desperation, they place an ad in Soldier of Fortune magazine for a personal bodyguard. It's answered by the title character, a scam-artist, drifter, and homeless veteran played by Owen Wilson.

Leslie Mann (real-life wife of comedy maven Judd Apatow, the film's producer) plays the romantically available faculty member who's always drawn to losers, and thus is Taylor-made for Drillbit when he impersonates a substitute teacher. Steve Brill directs from a script co-written by John Hughes, who has made his share of troubled-high-schooler movies and Superbad's Seth Rogen. The narrative of Drillbit Taylor resembles that of Superbad, but the quality of its production values doesn't go near it. While Superbad was very good, DT is watchable but erratic, getting less and less interesting and convincing as it goes along, and coming apart at the seams in what passes for a third act.

And while the semi-improvising Wilson, doing the heavy lifting, is always fun to watch, too much depends on his funky charm because the director never gets the youthful members of his cast beyond their obvious level of amateurish self-consciousness. The plotline about impostor Drillbit and his new gig and romance never really meshes with the trio-of-victims comedy.

Bullied kids will get a few wincing chuckles, but it's tough to be bullish about a bully flick that misses the bull's-eye by this much.

GP Rating System:
Three Grands = Bravo, don't miss it.
Two Grands = Good enough, don't dismiss it.
One Grand = Okay, even if we dis it.