Drillbit Taylor is Seth Rogen's prequel to Superbad. The same three guys who were trying to score some alcohol, before graduating from highschool, are shown here going to highschool as freshmen. It is not the same three characters by name but personality.
On the first day of their freshman year, two friends intervene with two bullies shoving a kid into a locker. This earns the wrath of the bullies but a friend from the said victim in the locker. After much humiliation and pain, they interview bodyguards. They end up hiring Drillbit, not because he is their first choice but because he is the only one they can afford.
Drillbit is an army deserter now living as a bum. Wilson is pretty much playing his same character from You, Me and Dupree. He is a shiftless vagrant, who sponges off those around him. At first he takes the kids offer just for the money, but eventually learns to like them. He pretends to be a teacher at the kid's school and ends up falling for a fellow teacher.
Drillbit is a criminal who at first only sees the boys as a means to make money. Not only does he take their payment, but he robs their parents house. He tells some fellow bums about his windfall and they are soon pretending to be teachers and rob the kids house even more.
Ever since My Man Godfrey, Hollywood has had a tendency to show bums to be victims of society. Here they are, surprisingly enough, portrayed as lazy criminals. One bum provides my favorite scene. While pretending to be a teacher, he tells a classroom of students that JFK was assassinated because Marilyn Monroe wouldn't have sex with Castro.
The most honest part of the movie is that it really shows how ineffective principles, teachers and parents are in dealing with a bully. One kid says he has been picked on and another denies it. Who is a teacher to believe? As hard as it may be for a teenager to take, the truth is they have to deal with this pretty much on their own.
The heart of the film is Drillbit's relationship to the three victims of highschool violence. However, the actors playing them are fairly charmless. The fat one seems to just be doing an imitation of Jonah Hill in Superbad. The two bullies are far more affective. Alex Frost, as the head bully, has a look in his eye that could get him plenty of roles playing psychos and bad guys. Josh Peck is playing against type as the bully's toady. His career, up to this point, has been playing the good guy, such as in his popular Nickelodeon television show Drake and Josh. One of his earliest roles was playing the victim of highschool bullies in Max Keebles Big Move.
Seth Rogen is definitely the writer du jour. His comedies with a heart are working well for him. However, he may need to get away from the teenage geek angle for awhile, as his stories are becoming far to similar.
