Is "The Watch" worth watching?

[rating=5]

Like many of you, when I first heard about “The Watch” and its stars, I was a little hesitant to see it. We all remember what happened with the last Vince Vaughn-Ben Stiller movie, right? For those of you who don’t remember, that film was “Dodgeball,” and although it had its moments, the film in its entirety wasn’t anything that great. It’s one of thost movies that you’d see in the five dollar movie bin at Walmart, show to your friend, say “This wasn’t bad,” then put back. So anyone who was initially a little skepical about this movie had good reason to be, but I am here to say that this film surpassed my expectations and it will probably do the same for you. This film was both funny, and had decent action for what it was.

“The Watch” takes place in your average modern-day suberb where we meet Evan (Ben Stiller, Night at the Museum), the manager of the local Costco, and a man who is proud of his neighborhood. After a brutal murder takes place, Evan decides to for a club with the intent of keeping his neighbors safe and finding the killer of his employee. Although the turnout is far from ideal, Bob (Vince Vaughn, The Wedding Crashers), Franklin (Jonah Hill, 21 Jump Street), and Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade, The IT Crowd) answer the call, and a strange and unlikely brotherhood is formed. Evan and his neighborhood watch soon realize that they are in over their heads when they discover a strange weapon, an alien body, and the realizeation that they are sharing their planet with disguised aliens who are bent on world domination.

Not many action-comedies are really able to pull off their genre as well as “The Watch” did. For the most part, they either become action movies with funny parts, or funny movies with a little action. This movie was the best of both worlds, having well balanced helpings of both action and comedy, and a decent story to go with it. I can’t tell you how many comedies I’ve seen with bad story lines. Just because it’s funny doesn’t mean the plot has to be as thin as wax paper. Fortunately, this movie did not fall into that same “horrible plot” category we’ve all come to expect from most comedies.

As far as acting goes, I felt like almost all of the top billed actors were at their best. This was easily Vince Vaughn’s most likeable and best portrayed charater to date, and his chemistry with Stiller was great, especially when comparing their last film endeavor together. Jonah Hill also did an excellent job in this film. I liked him better in “21 Jump Street,” but this role was still done really well, and far better than most of his previous work. Let’s all hope he keeps getting these roles and doesn’t get back into roles in films like “Superbad.”

So all-in-all, this movie was great. Could it have been better? Yes. Was it worth the price of admission? Indeed it was. As long as you can appreciate dirty jokes and irreverant humor, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. It’s not the most clever film out there, but it’s a good movie for what it is.

“The Watch” is rated R for some strong sexual content including references (a lot of sexual dialogue, nudity including topless women and several full back shots of both genders, and several implied sexual acts), pervasive language (many uses of the “F-word” and one use of the “C-word” and other offensive language throughout) and violent images (creature violence, a corpse is shown with missing entrails, and violent scenes throughout).