School bodyguard flick isn't super bad, but it's no 'Superbad'

'Kids hiring a bodyguard to take care of some bullies? Stupidest thing I ever heard!"

That's Adam Baldwin talking - the actor who offered just such a sort of protective service in Tony Bill's 1980 kids' classic, My Bodyguard. Baldwin shows up fleetingly in Drillbit Taylor, in an amusing montage of prospective bodyguard interviews. And yes, Drillbit Taylor, which stars Owen Wilson in the title role, is about a trio of hapless dweebs who hire some muscle to protect them from a pair of high school sociopaths.

If toothpick-thin Wade (Nate Hartley), frizzy-headed fatty Ryan (Troy Gentile), and total nerdball Emmit (David Dorfman) are remindful of the high school threesome in last summer's superhit Superbad, that's because Seth Rogen wrote both pictures, and, like Superbad, Drillbit Taylor comes from the prolific and enjoyably profane production house of Judd Apatow.

But Drillbit, while it has its Rogenian/Apatowian moments of inspired sophomoric humor, is less striking than its forerunner - even as the relentless school thugs Filkins (Alex Frost) and Ronnie (Josh Peck) strike fear into the hearts of Wade, Ryan, and Emmit, making every walk down the hall, or to the john, a living hell.

Enter Drillbit, an ex-Army Ranger (kind of) who answers the kids' ad and hires on to serve and protect. The only problem is that Drillbit is all talk - a loony loser who sleeps in the shrubbery near the Santa Monica beach, hangs out with his homeless buddies at a coffeeshop, and is really only interested in bilking these ninth graders out of enough cash to get him to Canada.

Wilson, with his crooked nose and deadpan slacker vibe, gets off some good lines - and is particularly funny when he falls into an unlikely courtship with the school's English teacher hottie (a charmingly kooky Leslie Mann). But too much of Drillbit Taylor is the kind of formulaic free-for-all that does Wilson no good, nor anybody else.

Hartley and Gentile are nicely matched as pipsqueak doppelgangers of Superbad's Michael Sera and Jonah Hill, though Dorfman's Emmit, his voice a high screech and his teeth encased in braces, is no McLovin. There are winning scenes between Wilson and the three teens as they train in various martial arts (like Mexican Judo - "as in Ju-don't know who you're messing with!") and get tips from clips of Fight Club and The Untouchables. But in the end, Drillbit Taylor is no My Bodyguard, and no Superbad.

Directed by Steven Brill. With Owen Wilson, Leslie Mann, David Dorfman, Alex Frost, Troy Gentile and Nate Hartley. Distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Running time: 1 hour, 42 mins.

Parent's guide: PG-13 (profanity, violence, adolescent and adult themes)

Playing at: area theatersEndText