Official Synopsis:
Owen Wilson gives a hilariously funny performance as a beach bum soldier of fortune who is hired by three high schoolers being tormented by the resident school bullies. It's nerds get revenge in a big way with sidesplitting deleted scenes not shown in theaters and outrageous outtakes you'll want to watch over and over. You wont be able to stop laughing as Drillbit (Wilson) trains these kids so they can ultimately turn the tables and exact their revenge!

  
Our Take:
I’m willing to bet this is not how John Hughes expected Drillbit Taylor to turn out. But I’m also willing to bet he doesn’t really care – nor do I, since the more adult language only helped the film be more funny.  Seth Rogen and Kristofor Brown took an old Hughes film idea and revamped it as what it would have been like for them in school at that age (ala Superbad). What results is a generally weak plot due to how many times we’ve seen a story about bullies and nerds, and, on the flipside, a fun slew of dialogue that never fails to impress.

Drillbit Taylor didn’t seem like it had much staying power in theatres, as it was already gone when I got around to it, but it was actually something I was interested in seeing. I can’t help but think that a large part of the film’s poor display in theatres had to do with Owen Wilson’s hospitalization and people not really being sure how to feel about him.

Audio & Video:

Drillbit Taylor looks very nice on Blu-ray. It’s an extremely colorful film; some of them seem almost exaggerated, but it appears that that was the filmmakers’ intent. Either way, color reproduction is terrific, with vibrant hues and a nice level of “pop” to them. Image clarity is also exceptional, detail levels in the foreground and background both are terrific. The film isn’t really a visual tour de force, but it looks quite good here. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack is hampered a bit by the dialogue-heavy nature of the film; there really just isn’t much to work with. The dialogue sounds excellent, and there are some minor surround effects, but this isn’t a film you watch to get exciting surround sound. For a comedy, though, it does its job very well.

Extra Features:

The Drillbit Taylor Blu-ray includes quite a few special features, all of which are ported over from the Extended Survival Edition DVD. They are all presented in high definition.

Blu-ray Exclusive Features:

There are no Blu-ray exclusives.

Standard Extras:

* Commentary by Steven Brill, Kristofor Brown, Troy Gentile, Nate Hartley and David Dorfman – Actually a strong commentary track but why no Seth Rogen?

* The Writers Get A Chance To Talk: Kristofor Brown and Seth Rogen (14 minutes) – Here we go.

* Deleted/Extended Scenes (17 minutes) – The extended edition puts all this back into the film.

* Line-O-Rama (4 minutes).

* Gag Reel (4 minutes).

* Rap Off (3 minutes) – Troy and Alex run through the rap battle with their teacher.

* Sprinkler Day (3 minutes) – Prep for the pulling of the school fire alarm.

* Bully (3 minutes) – With Alex Frost and Josh Peck.

* Directing Kids (3 minutes).

* The Real Don: Danny McBride (6 minutes) – Danny McBride rocks hard.

Conclusion:

At the end of the day, I didn’t love Drillbit Taylor and I didn’t really expect to, despite both Owen Wilson and Seth Rogen being involved in the production. But I mean, come on, who wants to watch a bunch of whiny kids whine about everything? The good news is that it doesn’t suck, as it most definitely had the potential to do.

Overall Picture:
Movie: B

Video: A-

Audio: B+
Extras: B+

- Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer