Review: The Watch (15)

In the late 1960s, the concept of the neighbourhood watch gained traction in America, uniting communities in their desire to prevent crime at ground level.
By Damon Smith
Published 24th Aug 2012, 11:47 BST

The Watch pits one such coalition of concerned residents against a full-blown alien invasion in the fictional idyll of Glenview, Ohio.

It’s a preposterous premise, ripe with humorous potential.

Unfortunately, screenwriters Jared Stern, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg throw a relationship sex comedy and a goofy buddy movie into the mix and this pot pourri of competing genres creates an almighty stink.

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Director Akiva Schaffer is poorly equipped to find method in the script’s madness and his film implodes before the computer-generated E.T.s have phoned home to beckon the otherworldly armada.

The unlikely hero is Evan (Ben Stiller), manager of a Costco wholesale store in Glenview, which he considers to be “the greatest town in the greatest country on the greatest planet.”

When the store’s security guard is murdered, Sergeant Bressman and his team fail to apprehend the culprit. So Evan organises his own neighbourhood watch to bring the guilty party to justice. Little do the hapless do-gooders realise that the person they are chasing is an extra-terrestrial warrior, who has landed on Earth to wipe out the pernicious human race. The Watch misfires on every level, failing to generate laughs or excitement as Evan and his dysfunctional pals search for extra-terrestrials in their midst.

Related topics:Ohio