Movie Review: The Watch (2012)

Synopsis: After his security guard is brutally murdered, Costco manager Evan Trautwig decides to form a neighborhood watch group. Much to his chagrin, only three people, Bob, Franklin and Jamarcus, volunteer to join and they are more interested in goofing off. That changes, however, when the men discover their hometown is ground zero for an alien invasion and since the authorities won't believe them, they are mankind's only hope.

Who's in it? The movie stars Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade and Rosemarie DeWitt.

Review: I came across The Watch on one of our movie channels some time ago but remained undecided about whether to watch it. While it seemed interesting, I was also concerned it would end up being too goofy or too raunchy for me to take it seriously. However, my wife and I finally gave it a try today and it turned out to be surprisingly good.

First of all, the movie does fall on the raunchy side, both in terms of language and some of the situations they encounter in their sleepy town. That said, the overall plot and execution made it easy to overlook that.

One of the things I found I liked about the movie was the surprise sincerity from Evan (Stiller) and Bob (Vaughn). This included Evan trying to figure out a way to tell his wife (DeWitt) he was sterile and Bob trying to be a father to a teenage daughter (Erin Moriarty) who seemed a bit out of control. It made them more relatable, especially compared to the other two team members, who just seemed a bit one-dimensional.

The film also has a nice mystery about who the aliens are since they are able to steal someone's skin and appear human. There were a couple nice twists as a result of that, both with people who seemed alien-like and the ones that turned out to actually be aliens.

I will say this though, I did feel a bit of a lump in my throat when I saw R. Lee Ermey's awesome performance as the gun-toting and overly angry Manfred. He was fantastic, as always, but it was also a bit humbling when I realized it was his final movie role before his death in 2018. If you watch it for no other reason, take the time to see that scene.

Final Opinion: Some of the raunchiness could have been toned down a bit but the overall movie exceeded expectations, and it is a film I'd recommend as a result of that.

My Grade: B+

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