THE WATCH
US, 2012.
Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, Rosemarie de Witt, Billy Crudup.
Directed by Akiva Schaffer.
Trying to think of a reason why you might want to watch The Watch.
If you have to see all Ben Stiller’s films… though again he does his typical serious shtick in the middle of mayhem (think Greg Focker). If you have to see all Vince Vaughan’s comedies (and he does put a lot more energy into this one than is merited). Not, if you have to see all Jonah Hill’s comedies. He is rather more subdued than usual. And, you may not want to see Billy Crudup as a creepy neighbour with some leering innuendo. Rosemarie de Witt, who has done some good films, has a smaller role as Stiller’s wife. Will Forte is a dumb local cop. The director in recent years has been working at Saturday Night Live.
Is it funny? Think crass humour, jokes and farce with little wit. It is both raucous and strained. There is a lot of pratfall humour and mock violence. It looks as if it were made by committee, someone suggesting one line, someone suggesting a different plot development, others looking at box-office possibilities for coarse comedy - and it all went into the pot, not a melting pot as the whole thing does not brew (or gel, to mix metaphors).
Is it clever? It moves from one genre to another and doesn’t really bring them together very well. Set in a small Ohio town, it looks like a domestic comedy, set in a supermarket. When a character is gorily killed, Stiller (who has inaugurated many clubs in the town) organises a neighbourhood watch group, with only three volunteers. Stiller plays a control freak. Vaughn is an exuberant hedonist. Hill lives with his mother and wants to break away and branch out. Ayoade is British, eager but not all that he seems.
On the one hand, it is a comedy of male bonding and unbonding. When it is revealed that there are aliens in town and that they plan a take over of the world, the film descends into some stupid situations and behaviour, especially confronting the monsters – and suddenly organising a happy ending that overstrains credibility.
Given the cast, it is a disappointing show.
