PLOT: Evan (Ben Stiller) is the manager of a small-town Costco, who forms a neighbourhood watch, along with fellow suburbanites Bob (Vince Vaughn), Franklin (Jonah Hill), and Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade). Together, they uncover an alien conspiracy that not only threatens their town- but the whole world. Da-da-DUM!
REVIEW: Lord knows, after last week’s tragic events, we could sure use a nice, cheeky comedy to lighten us all up, but despite a fun premise, and a strong core cast, THE WATCH is far too uneven to fit the bill. This should have been a slam-dunk, with Stiller and Vaughn already having worked reasonably well together in DODGEBALL, and Hill and Ayoade both riding career highs. Sadly, THE WATCH never comes together- veering from painfully bland and unfunny, to the occasional chuckle. Belly laughs are mostly absent.
Straight-jacketed into the confines of a big-studio comedy, Schaffer’s more idiosyncratic flourishes are mostly absent here, with THE WATCH unfolding in the same way it would under any reasonably competent studio director. Despite running only ninety minutes, THE WATCH feels really drawn out- with the filmmakers seemingly having a hard time determining what kind of film they’re making here- MEN IN BLACK, or THE ‘BURBS. It ultimately comes off as a bit of a half-assed hybrid. It’s too slick and CGI filled to really work as a comedy (low-tech is better than hi-tech unless you’re making GHOSTBUSTERS), but with too little time spent on the alien aspect to make it work as sci-fi. In the last act- Shaffer bombards us with gore, gunplay, and explosions, but it’s all too generic to be impressive- and more importantly, it’s not funny at all.
Still, THE WATCH isn’t awful- or, at least, outside the first 15 minutes it isn’t. I laughed a few times, and I’m sure it’s not a bad watch on Netflix on a rainy Sunday afternoon. At least the R-rating gives it a little raunch, although other than some brief nudity and scattered f-bombs, the rating seems to be mostly for gore, which is a waste. Overall, this isn’t a really bad movie- rather, it’s just a mediocre one.