The Watch

Overview

The 1989 film The 'Burbs (starring Tom Hanks) is an underrated comedy about a suburban vigilante squad protecting their leafy suburb from creepy neighbours. Attack the Block (2011) is an overrated sci-fi flick about a bunch of London thugs protecting their housing estate from super-creepy aliens. Put them together and you get The Watch: a 'rated' comedy about a suburban vigilante squad protecting their leafy suburb from super-creepy aliens. It’s not quite as funny as the former, or as creative as the latter, but still has enough tricks up its sleeve to avert the instant fail.

Directed by SNL's Akiva Schaffer and co-written by Seth Rogen and Adam Goldberg, The Watch boasts an enviable team of comedy heavyweights on both sides of the camera, with Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, and Vince Vaughn in the lead roles. Of those, Hill is the standout as the mentally unstable, police academy dropout Franklin, while the others rarely push beyond the tried and tested: Stiller is amiable and uptight, Ayoade is polite and awkward, and Vaughn is the chirpy man's man.

The plot is similarly familiar, borrowing more than it invents, but at least it does so in a way that keeps the pace steady and the laughs frequent. For a cast of this calibre, the jokes do linger too long in the gutter, but The Watch never takes itself too seriously and as a result, earns itself enough leeway as a silly yet entertaining diversion.