Donny Broussard Reviews: “Drillbit Taylor (Extended Survival Edition) DVD”

Judd Apatow is a busy man. He produces, writes, directs, and his formula for success has proven itself time and again. With “Drillbit Taylor” he’s wearing his producers hat again and long-time collaborator Seth Rogen was part of the screenwriting team. They enlisted Steven Bril (Without A Paddle) to sit in the directors chair and funny man Owen Wilson as the title character. And while the flick has all of the elements in place for another Apatow masterpiece it doesn’t quite hit the mark.

The film follows three nerds that fans of “Superbad” will find very familiar. There’s the smart ass fat kid (Troy Gentile), the skinny kid (Nate Hartley), and the ubergeek (David Dorfman). Only these characters are toned down for younger audiences. Anyway the three geeks decide to hire a bodyguard after being constantly tormented by the school bully, brilliantly played by Alex Frost. And because they don’t have enough coin to hire a real bodyguard they settle for a homeless looser named Drillbit that passes himself off as a badass. The kids and the loser become friends and the looser who at first just wanted to take the kids money has a change of heart.

The story and directing are by no means bad, they just don’t measure up to the material that this super team of comic masterminds usually spits out. On the bright side, the actors are great, with the exception of Wilson who basically rehashes the same character he usually plays. Alex Frost gives a standout performance as Filkins and Leslie Mann is extremely sexy.

The flick is definitely watchable, actually it’s more than watchable and a really good time-waster that reminded me of flicks like “Three O’Clock High.” I’ll probably check it out again once it makes its way to DVD, and maybe it’ll grow on me, but for now I think I’ll let “Drillbit Taylor” rest because it wasn’t quite a killer film.

Video: The widescreen transfer looked beautiful and the colors were sharp.

Audio: The audio came in loud and clear.

Special Features

Extended Scenes: Since this is the extended cut of the flick, I’m going to try and list the differences that I noticed. The date between Leslie Mann and Owen Wilson has been extended a slight bit, the meeting in the principals office was also slightly longer, and according to the commentary track there is an extra bully scene, but I didn’t notice any difference from the theatrical cut (maybe that was when I was staring at the hot brunette sitting next to me).

Commentary Track: With director Steven Brill and Kristofor Brown, and the lead actors Troy Gentile, Nate Hartley, and David Dorfman. It’s ok, but as I’ve said before I don’t usually get into commentary tracks.

“The Writers Get a Chance to Talk:” Writers Seth Rogen and Kristofor Brown talk about writing the script and stills from the film as well as behind the scenes photos play while their conversation plays out.

“13 Deleted/Extended Scenes:” Typical deleted scenes feature, but I did enjoy watching the extra bodyguard interviews.

“Gag Reel:” Bloopers and funny foul ups.

“Line-O-Rama:” A bunch of improv line readings.

“Rap Off:” A cool feature that shows the making of the rap battle as well as the actors working with a coach in order to help the with their skills.

“Bully:” Short clips of behind the scenes out-takes with Alex Frost and Josh Peck the actors that play the bullies.

“Sprinkler Day:” A short feature showing the set up of the day Drillbit sets off the fire alarm in the school.

“The Real Don: Danny McBride:” A short on set meeting with Danny McBride, who plays Drillbit’s friend. I enjoyed this feature more than I thought I would. McBride is a funny guy and has a bright future ahead of him.

“Directing Kids:” Director Steven Brill messing around with the kids.