Gather members of a genuinely talented comic team, give them a lazy script to work with and what do you get?
"The Watch," basically, a movie that's best described as disappointing. There are some laughs, certainly. If you put Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, Vince Vaughn and Richard Ayoade together and just let them go, you're bound to get something funny every now and then.
But Akiva Schaffer's film doesn't have enough laughs or enough story to maintain any sort of momentum. Instead, it meanders through distracting subplots and sputters once it arrives at the main idea: Aliens have landed on Earth and disguised themselves as humans.
Stiller plays Evan, who has worked his way up to managing the Costco in the 'burb where he lives. He's conscientious to a fault, running around town and starting clubs as a sort of substitute for real friendship. But one night, a grisly murder takes place at his store, and Evan dedicates himself to starting a block-watch program to solve the crime.
The only takers for Evan's program are Bob (Vaughn), the party-hearty father of a teenage daughter; Franklin (Hill), a possibly dangerous police-academy washout, and Jamarcus (Ayoade), who wants to meet new people. The hapless group eventually stumbles upon the truth about the murder and the larger plot: aliens.
Schaffer, working from a script by Seth Rogen, among others, doesn't seem to know what to do after that. So meanwhile Bob must tend to his randy daughter, who posts make out sessions on her Facebook account, while Evan deals with his wife, Abby (Rosemarie DeWitt, always delightful), who wants to have kids. These tangential scenes bring the alien plot to a screeching halt.
Evan and Sgt. Bressman (Will Forte), a moronic police officer, represent two small-town archetypes: the overeager busybody and, well, the moronic police officer. Far too much attention is paid to that at the expense of developing the alien story.
Stiller and Vaughn have often been better than they are here, and it's Hill who ultimately emerges as the funniest member of the cast. His profane asides and behavior around Abby alone boost the film a notch -- and "The Watch" is definitely in need of some boosting. It should be funnier than it is and it should be better.
More Details: 'The Watch'
* *
out of four stars
Rated R; sexual content, language, violent images
1 hour, 42 minutes
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