With constant new, young, exciting, comedy stars being produced almost systematically and monthly by Hollywood, spare a thought for the ageing comedy duo of Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn; whilst still prominent in cinemas, it’s clear that both men’s careers are winding down somewhat, but with the release of The Watch, can the duo still bring the laughs to audiences in the twilight of their careers?
After the police show little interest in the suspicious and gory death of a security guard, workaholic supermarket manager, and constant social-group-starter Evan (Stiller, Little Fockers) sets up a neighbourhood watch group, and hires the jock-like protective father Bob (Vaughn, Couples Retreat), resident young militant psychopath Franklin (Jonah Hill, 21 Jump Street), and eccentric Englishman Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade, The I.T. Crowd), to find the murderer. The trouble is, they stumble across something far worse… an alien invasion!
Stiller’s ageing self should be an appropriate fit for Evan, but his showing in The Watch is the same as pretty much every Ben Stiller performance from this last 15 years (he still relies on the same old facial expressions, and silent pauses, for awkward humour), and Vaughn’s is another loudmouth role we’ve seen him play time and time again. The caring father whose looking out for his teenage daughter is a bit different, and Vaughn gets brief moments to show off some acting chops, but this clashes with the “funny” loudmouth constantly spewing innuendo and dick comments.
On the other hand, Hill continues to show his growing maturity as a comedy actor; playing the near psychopathic Franklin is another expansion after 21 Jump Street and Moneyball, and he’s come on a lot since the short tubby kid roles he got at the start of his mainstream career; meaning Ayoade’s unfortunately left coming across as stereotypical (only around to fulfil a quota and for an awful race joke at the start), gets the short-end going up against the three American comedy heavyweights, and stuck in a role that’s a waste of an excellent comedy actor.
Early promotional material left The Watch looking out of place, with the comedy security group going against the sci-fi aspect of the film, but The Watch manages to pull it off; it’s ideas of an alien invasion aren’t terribly original, but plenty of nods to classics like Alien, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Ghostbusters were welcome, and make it feel quite similar to the second Alien Vs. Predator movie in terms of the introduction to the unnamed aliens and the closing scenes.
In sacrifice, there’s not really enough done with the neighbourhood watch group aspect to solidify it; we should have seen the newly joined foursome working together (maybe saving a cat from a tree?) and getting to know each other more; as it feels forced to have this group mulling about this quiet, suburban American town, and it would have been better to play down the alien invasion (getting a reaction when it’s introduced), because as it stands, the concept of ‘The Watch’ is wasted.
Ensemble comedy-cast films can be good, but The Watch is in no danger of topping the list of must see American comedy films; Stiller and Vaughn have worked on far superior and more interesting movies before; The Starsky & Hutch remake and Anchorman are infinitely funnier than the two badly-ageing leads working their way through a set routine of tame dick and fart jokes. The overuse of this sterile humour is off-putting, especially when you have far more memorable, recent releases like Ted and The Dictator which balanced when to give you an extreme moment or line. Here, it’s just a constant stream of dull lines you’d say in the pub with your mates for a cheap laugh, and apart from these, the comedy is lacking; with limited laughs away from the attempts at vulgar humour.
The humour of The Watch is influenced by debut director Akiva Schaffer (best known for his work as part of The Lonely Island comedy music group from Saturday Night Live) and his buddies’ music; with the averagely funny crude laughs reflected. It’s an okay looking film to be fair, and Schaffer does get the sci-fi genre part of the movie right; it’s well paced (even though it’s pretty obvious what’s going to happen next); and he delivers an okay debut (which perhaps could have done with a more experienced producing hand to guide him through), but suffers from average direction throughout.
Casting letdowns, and 50/50 direction, make this movie susceptible to the wrath of the local nay-bourhood watch, and, even though an understandably confusing, but cool, premise has put off a lot of U.S. audiences (giving it the justified allure of a lame duck), The Watch isn’t a bad film, it’s just average, and cheap laughs mean it pails in comparison to earlier ‘Frat Pack’ related movies.
Terry Lewis – @thatterrylewis.
