The Watch

Comedy heavyweights, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughan and Jonah Hill, along with British funny man, Richard Ayoade come together for Akiva Schaffer’s comedy / sci-fi flick, The Watch, but unfortunately, and regardless of the actors' titanic status in this genre of film, very little is done to make it anything but just about watchable.

The Watch is the story of four suburban family men who form a neighbourhood watch group in the wake of a local murder. Evan (Stiller) – who sets up innumerable social clubs to deny the problems he has in finding real friends - immediately takes the reigns bringing in Bob (Vaughan) - an over-protective father who wants to keep tabs on his daughter; Franklin (Hill) - a rejected cop, and Jamarcus (Ayoade) – a singleton who wants to impress the local Asian women with his bravery. Quickly the guys realise that they’ve bit off a little more than they can chew, and find themselves embroiled in defending the Earth from an alien invasion.

The Watch feels like a shameless ploy to use the star power of its cast to give its pretty unfunny story any comedic clout, and unfortunately for the team behind the movie it does not work out. It’s dialogue is poorly written, whilst the plot lacks any sense of comedic timing. With the likes of Evan Goldsmith (Pineapple Express; Superbad) and Seth Rogen on board as the writing team it comes as a real surprise, leaving a lot to be desired, with jokes that fall dead in the water and lacking any of the usually memorable moments of a Rogen / Goldsmith collaboration.

A number of scenes seem to come from the stock cupboard of recent Hollywood comedy, like where the four men celebrate a victory by racing around in Evan’s car and head-banging to Bachman Turner Overdrive’s ‘Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’. But even the use of dependable clichés can’t save the film from being devoid of anything remotely funny. All would have been forgiven if the film had had any decent running jokes, or good chemistry between its cast members, but, unfortunately, The Watch has neither. It’s loosely developed plot means that any budding jokes get lost amidst a bulk of unnecessary waffle, and by the time the audience is meant to laugh it all feels a little lifeless and desperate. That’s when they really put the nail in the coffin; a whole scene is dedicated to the four men humping a dead alien and blowing stuff up with alien guns all while they take photos on smart phones, all seemingly put together to get a cheap laugh from the audience.

It would be foolish to not recognise that The Watch is not meant to be high brow stuff, and that the filmmakers are going for the lowest common denominator, but the actors and writing team involved can and should do better, and with that in mind, the film seems all the more of a flop. A few saving graces come in the shape of the films special effects, which provide some quite ridiculously funny aliens, but if that really is all a comedy film of this supposed magnitude can offer, it’s a sad time for the mainstream comedy genre.