Starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Adaoye, Rosemary DeWitt, Will Forte, Mel Rodriguez, Nicholas Braun and Billy Crudup.Directed by Akiva Schaffer.
★½
It was unfortunate for this movie that the George Zimmerman case became national news before its release. The studio changed the movie's name from Neighborhood Watch to The Watch, and they played up the aliens subplot, which I think they wanted to be more secretive about leading up to the release.
Stiller & Vaughn, that comedy duo from Dodgeball, are left to their own comic devices where a lot of their lines come off as improvised, but they're never actually funny. Stiller's the OCD guy who starts up 20 different community groups to compensate for not having any actual friends. Vaughn is the local jock-idiot who likes the excuse "Neighborhood Watch" gives to get out of the house. Hill, at least, has a little more of a character, but he's the vigilante-cop-wannabe, an intense guy that you do not want holding a gun or joining the force. Can't help but think of Zimmerman with him.
The motivations of the aliens didn't make sense, and not just the ones they blast like video-game monsters. That wouldn't matter as much if the film had laughs to hide its flaws. Its flaws stand naked.
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