Now Hughes did not take an active part in Drillbit Taylor , he simply received a & ldquo;story by & rdquo; credit under his pseudonym Edmond Dantes (the name of the much abused and vengeful protagonist of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo , hmmm? Wonder if that means something?). Seth Rogen (star of Knocked Up and writer of Superbad ) and Kristofer Brown (an alumni of Beavis and Butthead ) are credited with the screenplay, while Apatow served only as producer. Since film is a highly collaborative art and I haven't had the opportunity to ask anyone about who wrote what, I can only speculate on who came up with which ideas. But I can say I like Apatow's Freaks and Geeks TV show and his films 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up , and I also liked Rogen's Superbad , but I have always had problems with John Hughes' films. Ever since Hughes forced Ally Sheedy's cool, sarcastic outcast to get a cute makeover in The Breakfast Club , I've had issues with Hughes. He also made Molly Ringwald fall for the wrong guy in Pretty in Pink (and forced Annie Potts to give in to conformity along the way as well). And I hated the way the arrogant and self-centered Ferris Bueller (played by the smug Matthew Broderick) abused his friends who then loved him for the abuse.
So discovering Hughes' contribution & ndash; however limited -- to Drillbit Taylor made me wonder if he's responsible for the things I didn't like in the film. For one, the film tries to make Owen Wilson's Drillbit Taylor work against the actor's natural tendencies. Wilson is by no means a great actor but within his niche of laidback, likable goofs, he can be quite entertaining. But for most of Drillbit Taylor , Wilson's title character is asked to cruelly deceive the three desperate kids who hire him as he attempts to scam them out of money and goods. He doesn't help them in the least and he actually puts them in real physical jeopardy. Wilson has played characters who con people and he's been a slacker who's shunned responsibility but this is the first film that requires him to be downright unlikable and mean-spirited, and he's not very good at conveying that. Then the film has to scramble to give his character a quick makeover so we like him again. This kind of character and manipulation reminds me of Hughes' films, which always seemed to have a meanness buried somewhere inside, as if Hughes didn't really like making these teen comedies and condescended to do them.
Then there's the issue of the bully. As in most Hughes films, the adults are all ridiculously out of it and ineffective. So in Drillbit Taylor , the parents are oblivious to the pain and suffering of their children, and the principal is completely unresponsive to the complaints of bullying on his campus. Now it's not that I expect three-dimensional, realistic or likable parents and school administrators in a teen comedy, but I expect them to function more credibly within the context of the story. Charlie Bartlett had an ineffective principal in Robert Downey, Jr. but his ineffectiveness stemmed from believable aspects of his character not because the film just needed a stooge. But Stephen Root's principal in Drillbit Taylor harkens back to Paul Gleason's idiot principal in The Breakfast Club and Jeffrey Jones' buffoon administrator in Ferris Bueller . In Hughes' films, adults are made ridiculous because that seems like a ploy on his part to get kids to like his movies. In Juno , Diablo Cody , a self-confessed fan of Hughes, said she made the parents in her film likable because, & ldquo;I feel like the idea of a contentious relationship between teenagers and parents had become a clich e. & rdquo; Hughes, in contrast, has always represented that clich e.
On the other hand, what I enjoyed in Drillbit & ndash; the kids interacting & ndash; seemed to come more from Rogen and Apatow, and I base that on the evidence of Superbad and Freaks and Geeks . Rogen and Apatow seem to side with the freaks and geeks, and embrace them without forcing them to conform or become like the other & ldquo;cool & rdquo; kids. Plus the two lead kids in Drillbit , the excellent Nate Hartley and Troy Gentile mimic the tall-thin and short-fat odd coupling of Superbad , which was supposedly inspired by Rogen's own friendship with Superbad co-writer Evan Goldberg. Hughes, on the other hand, only seemed to feign allegiance with outsiders like Sheedy's goth chick or Jon Cryer's misfit in Pretty in Pink . But in the end Hughes always sided with the good looking winners, the ones who could dominate others.
The main difference between Hughes and the Apatow/Rogen team is that Apatow and Rogen genuinely seem to like their characters whereas I always felt that Hughes did not feel genuine affection for his. I never felt like the characters I saw onscreen in a Hughes film were reflecting his own youth. But I do feel like Apatow and Rogen are referencing their own lives in some way in their films. Again, all this is mere speculation on my part but it's speculation based on the evidence I've witnessed in all of their films. But I have to confess that I don't think Drillbit Taylor was helped much by director Steven Brill who came to this gig from directing a series of Adam Sandler films.
Drillbit Taylor (rated PG-13 for crude sexual references throughout, strong bullying, language, drug references and partial nudity) proved disappointing to me. I didn't have high expectations for it but after having been impressed by everything else Apatow and Rogen had done together before, I thought it would at least be a fun comedy. Finding out that John Hughes was involved & ndash; even remotely & ndash; in this film provided a kind of explanation as to why this film didn't seem to fit with the others and why I never warmed up to it. I know it's not very fair to pick on a guy who hasn't made a film in years and who's refuses to talk to the press any more about his work. So forgive me for my rant on John Hughes, I hope he's enjoying himself up in Wisconson.
Just a side note, I did love the cameo in Drillbit Taylor by Adam Baldwin. Baldwin is one of the bodyguards that the kids interview. He is also the actor who played the bodyguard Chris Makepeace hires in My Bodyguard to protect himself from the bully played by Matt Dillon in that 1980 film. That was a nice touch on the part of the filmmakers. I think Baldwin is even wearing the same clothes as he did playing Linderman.
Companion viewing: My Bodyguard, Superbad, Bully, The Karate Kid, Back to the Future, Freaks and Geeks (TV series)
