The Watch (2012)
Certified: 18
Duration: 102 minutes
Directed by: Akiva Schaffer
Starring: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, Rosemarie DeWitt, R. Lee Ermey
KRS release
In Akiva Shaffer’s new action-comedy, Ben Stiller is Evan, a happily married man who lives in the suburbs and who runs a supermarket. When his friend and employee ends up dead in a very bizarre manner, he goes into shock.
He is further irked by the local police who seem not too interested in trying to solve the case. Thus he begins his own crusade to find the culprit and save the neighbourhood.
So he starts a Neighbourhood Watch. In come the neighbours: Bob (Vince Vaughn), who is all out to have fun but wants the group to spy on his teenage daughter’s whereabouts; Franklin (Jonah Hill), who wanted to be a cop but was not accepted into the force; and Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade), who is British and is need of company. Soon the group are causing havoc and clashing with the cops.
They also end up face to face with Manfred (R. Lee Ermey), who is head over heels in love with his guns but in trouble with his wife Abby (Rosemary De Witt).
Meanwhile, Bob is not at all happy with the fellow his daughter is dating.
All the foregoing is put in the shade when they discover that their locality has been targeted as the landing spot for an alien invasion.
The aliens are ready to attack; all they need is to build a device and this is being carried out at Evan’s supermarket. It’s time for the Watch to save the suburbs and the world.
The Watch’s strength lies in its cast, made up of the regular names in Hollywood comedy that provide very fine performances.
The film was slated to be released under the title of The Neighbourhood Watch but it was changed after an incident in Florida last February in which a black teenager was shot dead by a neighbourhood watch group.
The resulting film is as much about the troubles of the individual members of the group as their interaction with one another, the neighbourhood and the alien invasion.
Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad and Pineapple Express), the film delivers a sort of updated version mix of Ghostbusters, Men In Black and The ’Burbs.
As expected the film’s humour is over-the-top and in your face.
Director Schaffer seems to have given the cast free rein and licence to ham it up. Thus the film’s script, which is pretty linear, is sometimes taken in wildly surprising avenues.
It is, however, Vaughn and Hill who emerge victorious as they seem to do the weirdly comical better than the rest.
On the other hand, British comedian Ayoade displays impeccable comic timing. This can surely open up more roles for him, so he is hopefully not stuck in Brit-in-the-US kind of roles!
The film climaxes in the frenetic last 30 minutes when the sci-fi elements come together.
The Watch never goes into the subject of civic responsibilities, vigilantism and the law. This is a Saturday Night’s Boys’ Own comedy happily overdosing on its ridiculous plot.
The Watch provides the goods for a comedy that goes off in wildly unusual directions and it is not the alien invasion that is at times the weirdest; the suburbs can be even more out-of-this-world bizarre.