Issue date: 3/21/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Jocelyn McGregor [Click to enlarge]

For Wade (Nate Hartley), Emmit (David Dorfman) and Ryan (Troy Gentile), high school is a big deal. The boys have decided that as freshmen, they would make it their goal to be "cool" and to get girlfriends. On their first day of school, however, they become the victims of Filkin (Alex Frost), the infamous school bully. Filkin and Ronnie (Josh Peck) are constantly finding ways to torture the three boys.

The boys finally decide that enough is enough and hire Drillbit Taylor with their allowance money to be their bodyguard. Little did they know that Drillbit was a homeless person running from the law and only out to get their money.

Drillbit drills the boys into believing that he's training them to go up against Filkin and soon the boys begin to trust Drillbit. At the same time, Drillbit discovers that he likes the boys and decides he no longer wants to cheat them out of their money so he has to find a way to tell them the truth.

Owen Wilson does a great job as the supposed bodyguard Drillbit Taylor. Wilson's characters usually have the same personality in all his films but his humor makes up for it. The three "geeks" were hilarious - especially Ryan. He said some outrageously funny lines throughout the movie. He seems like he'd be another Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Superbad). He even looks like Rogen! Actually, Rogen was one of the screenplay writers so it wouldn't be surprising if Gentile's lines came from him.

One of the most memorable and humorous scenes was when Ryan raps against bully Filkins. They said some obscene things to each other but Gentile's lines were hilarious. It was surprising to see words like that coming out of a kid - it was like a mini-plump version of Eminem.

Another surprise was Ronnie, Filkin's sidekick. Peck also plays Josh Nichols from Nickelodeon's hit show "Drake and Josh." Peck's role in "Drillbit Taylor" was completely different from his role as Josh Nichols, who is goofy. He did a great job of getting out of the Josh Nichols role, which he has been playing for years. He mesmerized with the character of a bully.

The film also features Leslie Mann, who plays an English teacher. She's a great comedian and did a great job in past films such as "Knocked Up" and "Big Daddy" so it was shocking that she barely had any lines in Drillbit Taylor. However, she did do an admirable job of playing the sexy teacher who falls for Drillbit.

Hartley, Gentile and Dorfman did an impressive job at making the audience believe they were actual friends because they had such good chemistry in the film. They stood up for each other throughout the film even though they were all scared of Filkin. Frost was also notable at being the bully. He was really good at being mean and conniving. In front of parents and faculty, he played the sweet kid who wanted nothing but to be friends with the boys. None of the adults believed he was a bully. Every time he was putting up an act, he was giving the boys the look of "I'm going to get you later." By the end of the movie, people in the audience were cheering on the three boys to "kick his ass."

Typhani Yang can be reached at tyang@statehornet.com

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