The Watch
Dir: Akiva Schaffer
2012
*
Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn play the same character they always play and Jonah Hill plays the character he used to play but has since stopped. Hopefully anyway. The script is written by Seth Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg and it is directed by Akiva Schaffer of the Lonely Island fame. The fact that Seth Rogen is no where to be seen in this film suggests to me that he didn't have full confidence in the project, although I think he would have been better cast then Stiller or Vaughn, he was right not to be. Schaffer's debut, Hot Rod, was very funny but it looks like it was beginners luck. The Watch isn't a clever take on the Alien genre, in fact it's a really clumsy and stupid take on the genre. Richard Ayoade is totally wasted on this crap and you can clearly see how uncomfortable and unable he is in getting a word in. Stiller, Vaughn and most of their buddies are terrible at ad-lib but they keep doing it and keep failing at it. Putting the word 'Balls' at the end of a sentence does not automatically make it funnier. The Watch is stupid, puerile and above all dull. Stop trying to make the new Shaun of the Dead, move on and make something else.