The Watch (2012)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Masterful Movie

Best movie ever!

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

This movie isn't designed for artist views and pretentiousness. It's meant to be crass and stupid and entertaining. It provided me with more laughs in a movie I've had in so long. Just because you find this movie funny doesn't make you stupid it just means you've got a decent sense of humour and don't take life too seriously where a movie is concerned. Jonah Hill is one of the best in this movie complimented with Vince Vaughn's stone cold faced humour. I loved it. I would watch it again. Feel down watch this for just the stupidity and laughter.

Distraught over the violent murder of a night shift employee, a variety store manager with too much time on his hands forms a neighbourhood watch, only to find his recruits more interested in socialising and having a good time in this jovial comedy with a science fiction twist. Much of the humour is extremely low-brow and the film is never consistently funny, but the first half is certainly propelled greatly by the gradual bonding between the four main characters. Richard Ayoade (from TV's 'The IT Crowd') and Jonah Hill are particular standouts, but even Vince Vaughn's initially obnoxious character is eventually revealed to be both a deeply caring parent and very lonely isolated man. The science fiction content only works to a limited degree though and rather than strengthen the bonds between the characters, it mostly just leads to lots of mindless action and explosions; certainly many earlier films have done much more with the aliens in suburbia premise - though this is probably the only film which has its characters dance with an alien corpse (!) in one of the film's most bizarre (if silly) scenes. The creature effects are certainly quite decent and there are some pretty neat makeup effects in the mix too, but it is hard not to wonder what the film would have looked like without the science fiction angle. There is a lot of interest in the dynamic of four men joining a neighbourhood security program simply as a way to meet people, but this gets a tad lost here amid the aliens and gross-out humour. When the film is genuinely funny, however, it is very, very funny.

The Watch (2012): Dir: Akiva Schaffer / Cast: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, Rosemarie DeWitt: We have two factors here. We have an alien invasion that first strikes at a Costco where a security guard is found splattered throughout the discount sections. Then we have four males who assemble and set out to conquer the problem only to discover that their foe is from outer space. Ben Stiller leads the group as the Costco manager whose background has him involved in numerous support groups. His big hang up is that he cannot get his wife pregnant. Vince Vaughn plays a father whose teenage daughter is involved in a relationship that he forbids. Jonah Hill plays a guy who failed to become a cop. He still lives at home with his mother where he pretends to be independent. Richard Ayoade plays a new neighbour who brings forth comic bewilderment as well as a great plot twist. To be fair, the concept here has appeal but this is no Ghostbusters. The subplots allow the characters to have background, however they are also pointless to the central plot. We know that the climax will be over the top violence with a security guard getting his heart ripped out. The special effects are familiar but work within the alien conventions. The actors are completely type cast but they will appeal to hardcore fans. Smaller roles are another story though. Rosemarie DeWitt plays Stiller's wife and a host of others make brief cameos. Ghostbusters has a more specific agenda with its reality fantasy worldview but fans of the comedians are the one who will desire to watch this spectacle. Score: 5 ½ / 10

In comedy films your going to laugh at things you haven't heard of. In 'The Watch' you have big comedians like Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, and Vince Vaughn who live in a small town that start a neighborhood watch team to protect against aliens. Not a single moment in this film besides Jonah Hill giving a couple funny one-liners is funny, and the comedy is so recycled. The language used, the scenes with aliens, and the disasters are rushed and rotated for a while that make you want to scream. Comedies these days need originality in order to please an audience. Not a single moment in 'The Watch' will make you bored and unhappy with it's lame comedic effect, and overall status of being another bad comedy.