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elixir
08-05-2012, 01:17 AM
THE WATCH
Director: Akiva Schaffer

IMDB page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1298649/)

http://www.okmagazine.com/sites/okmagazine.com/files/imagecache/node_page_image/article_images/the-watch-poster-july27.jpg

Henry Gale
08-05-2012, 06:32 AM
Pretty much every friend I know that's seen this has said it's not a good movie by any means, but the jokes (though fairly sex-heavy... okay probably just dick-heavy) and the cast (particularly Richard Ayoade and an underused Billy Crudup) are entertaining enough to not really let the rest undermine them.

They basically said if you like Hot Rod and MacGruber and all of their pervasive silliness, you'd probably find enough to like here. Luckily I kinda do, so I look forward to watching this a few months from now at home. Otherwise, I kinda hope The Campaign can pull it together to be this summer's best comedy.

B-side
08-05-2012, 06:59 AM
I thought the trailers were hilarious. Surprised it's being received so poorly.

Henry Gale
12-09-2012, 08:43 PM
Pretty much every friend I know that's seen this has said it's not a good movie by any means, but the jokes (though fairly sex-heavy... okay probably just dick-heavy) and the cast (particularly Richard Ayoade and an underused Billy Crudup) are entertaining enough to not really let the rest undermine them.

They basically said if you like Hot Rod and MacGruber and all of their pervasive silliness, you'd probably find enough to like here. Luckily I kinda do, so I look forward to watching this a few months from now at home. Otherwise, I kinda hope The Campaign can pull it together to be this summer's best comedy.

Well, they were right.

It's tough because even though I laughed a bunch of times, the underlying movie is just weighed down by such a strict, plot-heavy script that's pretty rote story-wise and doesn't particularly let jokes flow directly from it with ease. There's the dopey, amusing, improv-lenient comedy with a potentially great group dynamic that's perfectly okay, and then there's the big-budget, aliens-in-a-small-town genre picture that is just bad, they're constantly competing, and both kind of end up losing as a result. The Ghostbusters balancing act once again proves to be a difficult thing to emulate.

I almost wish it was 80 minutes of a group of local conspiracy theorists banding together, but having nothing to do but investigate the suburbs, eventually uncovering red herrings that have them accidentally stumble upon a government cover-up or something, causing actual agencies to come down on them, all while letting the funniest sort of hang-out stuff go on in the meantime. Then the last twenty minutes aliens actually do show up and they use all the knowledge they've built up with one another to fight them. Not that it would be the only way to make this better, but the way the final film has the two cross over so early really kills whatever comedic momentum it has.

It's a C to C+ effort, likely elevated or diminished by how much you enjoy watching this cast, which is a shame, since it could've been so much better if it just figured out how to have more fun with itself.