Review: 27 Dresses (2/5); Drillbit Taylor (1/5)

27 Dresses
(Anne Fletcher):
Katherine Heigl, James Marsden,
Malin Akerman, Edward Burns.
Running time: 107 minutes.

Movie stars rarely emerge fully-formed. In olden days, studios would spend years finding the right film voice for future stars. This insipid chick-flick, another variation on the always-a-bridesmaid, never the bride, is unremarkable but for one thing: Katherine Heigl.
The star of Knocked Up plays a put-upon who has been a bridesmaid 27 times. She thinks she’s in love with her boss (Edward Burns), who falls instead for her airbubble sister Tess (Malin Akerman). Will she have to be bridesmaid there too? Meanwhile, she is being wooed by a newspaper reporter (James Marsden), but she has no idea that he is the very writer behind the wedding column she swoons over. (It’s a plot line as old as The Shop Around the Corner, updated in You’ve Got Mail). Heigl has warmth and sass – a little touch of the Bacall. She knows how to handle a man and can fire sparks when she is angry. You can glimpse some of that here, but it is a passive role. I think she could be a real star. Maybe she needs a writer to tailor a good old screwball for her.


Drillbit Taylor
(Steven Brill):
Owen Wilson, Troy Gentile, Nate Hartley, David Dorfman.
Running time: 102 minutes.

As long as there are anxious nerds starting high school, there will be two-bit comedies such as this to coax them through it. Producer Judd Apatow (Superbad) is now mining this genre for all it is worth with mixed results, while Seth Rogen, who co-wrote Superbad, gets a writing credit. Nerds Ryan (Troy Gentile), Wade (Nate Hartley), and Emmit (David Dorfman) are being bullied at school by a young psychopath. So they hire Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) to protect them.
Drillbit isn’t a bodyguard though – he’s a homeless tramp who spies an opportunity for a quick buck. The story doesn’t yield anything beyond thin characters and thin laughs, while Wilson looks like he’s in it for the money. He gets socked in the schnoozle no less than four times. It will add more character to that misshapen nose, but it won’t amend for this super bad film.