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After a string of successes, the Seth Rogen/Judd Apatow comedy factory has finally produced a dud with Drillbit Taylor, a boring, mean-spirited school comedy. Just as in Superbad, our heroes are a pair of losers, fat and brassy Ryan (Troy Gentile) and skinny, shy Wade (Nate Hartley). Fed up with being bullied, they elect to hire a professional bodyguard. Unfortunately, the only one they can afford is Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), a homeless con artist.

Drillbit soon inveigles himself into high school life by posing as a supply tutor, and before long he's attending intimate detentions with Leslie Mann's sex-starved English teacher. The kids continue to suffer endless humiliations at the hands of Alex Frost's frightening, dead-eyed bully, while the school authorities implausibly turn a blind eye. Wilson is his usual sunny self as Drillbit, the hobo with the mojo, and his charisma saves the movie from complete drudgery. Despite a paucity of funny lines, Wilson can make even the most reprehensible character endearing - we smile for him even as he robs his employers blind.

"LEAVES A NASTY TASTE IN THE MOUTH"

Everything else here is pretty familiar, though: we even get a McLovin style super-dork (Ian Roberts) to round out the trio. The only thing that's missing from this template is laughs. The schoolyard riffs on pop culture topics feel like offcuts from previous Rogen scripts, and barring a spectacular rap battle there's little to raise a smile. The real problem, though, is director Stephen Brill's penchant for wringing laughs out of cruelty. The bullying sequences are clearly intended to be funny (though they're not), which puts Drillbit Taylor completely at odds with the generous disposition of past Rogen/Apatow movies. Overall, it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

Drillbit Taylor is out in the UK on 28th March 2008.