★★★☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

   When I first saw a trailer for The Watch, I was pretty excited.  Vince Vaughn,  Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller, Richard Ayoade.  Written by Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg (who did the screenplay for the VERY funny Goon, which was only on ppv and limited release but was a fantastic movie)   Directed by Akiva Schaffer, of The Lonely Island fame, and the movie Hot Rod, which I feel is a very under rated movie.   You have a very talented group of people from top to bottom here, and expectations were pretty good going in.


   What actually happened was me spending over 90 minutes waiting for the funny to actually start.   Ben Stiller is given nothing to attempt to be funny with,  Vince Vaughn pretty much is Vince Vaughn in every movie he's has ever been in, throw in an alien invasion, and you have what mounts to a fly in the soup.   Its dreadfully slow, every joke seems to be forced improv.  I laughed once during the entire movie, and maybe cracked a small grin another time.   It just doesn't get funny.  Ever.  Hit the "read more" link below



   Ben Stiller is a manager of a Costco, and one of his security guards is murdered overnight.  Stiller's character is a control freak, no social life and fills it by starting neighborhood clubs, his home life seems ok on the surface but he's not communicating with his wife, who is tired of his clubs.   After the murder of the guard, he decides to start a Neighborhood Watch program during halftime of a football game.


   The only people to show up are Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, and at hte last second Ayoade.   Vaughn just wants to use the watch to hang out with the guys and drink beer.  Ayoade has a more interesting idea which I won't get into here, and I'm not really sure why Jonah Hill is here.

   Stiller vows to catch the man who murdered his security guard, and they eventually discover an alien, and a little later, an alien plot, thanks to the most most lame and convenient exposition in the history of film. There are a few subplots, Stiller being sterile and not telling his wife, which really adds nothing to the story.  There is a subplot between Vaughn and his daughter which gets a payoff at the very least and sort of makes sense.

  Will Forte plays a local police officer, and he couldn't even get a laugh out of me, and I'm typically a sucker for MacGruber.   Nothing works in this film.  The jokes are so few and far between, the ones that do land like i said feel so forced.  

   I actually like the idea for this film, but it goes to show you can not just throw a bunch of funny  people in a pot, add water, and get a good comedy.  (Caddyshack 2...Cannonball Run 2...should I continue?)   I found this to be mostly unwatchable and quite terrible.   I'm happy to have watched this so nobody else has to.

3/10

Labels: 2012, New Release