The Watch: Movie Review

The Watch: Movie Review

Cast: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, Rosemarie DeWitt
Director: Akiva Schaffer

In this latest aliens invade comedy, we find ourselves back in middle America.

A dialled-down Ben Stiller plays Evan Trautwig, a local guy who lives in Glenview, Ohio and who's terribly proud of his community. He's head of a stack of different hobby clubs, works as a manager of a local supermarket after years of slowly climbing up the ladder and is proud of what he's achieved and the people he lives with.

But when the night guard of his store is murdered, the uptight Evan decides to step up to show his love for the community and form a neighbourhood watch.

Having recruited only three others - boorish Bob (Vaughan), a rejected trigger happy wannabe cop (Hill) and a mild mannered, socially awkward Brit, Jamarcus (Ayoade) - the whole thing appears to be more of an excuse for lonely guys to socialise rather than patrol the streets, despite Evan's best intentions.

However, when the four of them discover that aliens have invaded and are about to take over Glenview, it becomes more of Evan's mission to try and convince everyone outside the watch and save his beloved community.

What to say about The Watch?

If you're after a slightly vulgar, occasionally puerile and hit and miss laugh out loud experience, then this film is for you.

Sure, this kind of film's been done plenty of times before (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Men in Black et al) but the central ensemble cast seemed to promise more than they actually delivered. On paper, it's a dream team - Stiller, Vaughn and Hill have great comic chops and CVs and the adding into the mix of the brilliant Ayoade seemed to hint at freshening things up between them all.

But what emerges on the screen is a patchy, scrappily funny affair with a few generally amusing lines which punctuate the unevenness of the overall script. Scenes meander on with very few punchlines worthy of their set up - or they're entirely predictable as this suspicion of suburbanites alien invasion story progresses.

Stiller's the straight man to Vaughn's overprotective, just-wanna-hang-with-the-guys boor; and Hill adds a level of funny with his edgy, rejected cop who threatens to overflow into violence. But the star of the film (and who gets the admittedly slim lion's share of the best lines) is the IT Crowd's Richard Ayoade who punctures and peppers the "comedy" with moments of awkwardness and unpredictability. Sadly, though, there's just not enough of those scattered through the film - although it is a star debut.

With horrendous product placement once again on show and the film really reneging on the promise of a group of mismatched guys coming together and enforced bonding, The Watch proves to be a picking at low hanging fruit kind of film - and if you're in the mood for that (or have a teenage boy mentality to cope with the vulgar jokes) then it's the film for you.

Everyone else will just want The Watch to disband and never reform.

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