Blu-ray Review: Drillbit Taylor

THE MOVIE: 2 1/2 stars out of 5
Drillbit Taylor stars Owen Wilson and tells the story of three nerdy freshman from their first day in high school where they are picked on, hazed and abused by two upper classmen. In order to protect themselves, they place an online ad for a bodyguard. After interviewing a number of wacky possibilities, they choose on the wackiest of all, a homeless drifter and army deserter, with a group of homeless buddies who are anxious to rob the boys and their families blind. Drillbit is able to fool the boys into thinking he is a former army commando who can teach them how to defend themselves. He finally accompanies them to school where he is able to pass himself off as a substitute teacher. This is not the worst teen comedy I have ever seen but is not exactly highbrow entertainment. There are a few funny spots in the film but they are really few and far between. If you enjoy mindless teen comedies. Check out Drillbit Taylor as a rental. Otherwise, you may want to pass.

THE VIDEO: 4 1/2 stars out of 5
Drillbit Taylor is encoded with VC-1 and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2:35:1. All things considered, this is a very good encode with bright and bold colors and very good detail. Film grain is well preserved also. Clarity of the image is a very good as is the black level which is deep and stable, rendering a very satisfactory three dimensional image. My only quibbles concern color saturation and color accuracy. I did not see this film in the theater but found the color palette to be a bit over saturated, looking rather unnatural. This is more than likely an artistic decision on the part of the director rather than a fault of the encode. However, that doesn’t mean that I have to like it. I also found the color palette to be skewed a bit to the gold or orange. However, this slight skewing in no way detracts from your enjoyment of the video. I am sure that fans of the film will be very pleased with this transfer.

THE AUDIO: 4 1/3 stars out of 5
The high rez audio on Drillbit Taylor is presented in Dolby True HD and is a fine sounding effort. The overall sound of the film is smooth and open with very good bass. The music tracks here are very well presented and are the high points of the sound mix. Dialogue is well recorded and well placed in the sound mix, never getting lost in the overall sound field. On the down side, the sound field is very front heavy with sparse use of the surrounds. This is not all that unexpected given the nature of the film. However, I do feel that better use of the surrounds could and should have been made, if only to add ambiance. All in all, the sound here is about as good as you can expect from this type of film.

IN CONCLUSION
Drillbit Taylor is your typical teen comedy and not quite as offensive of some that I have seen. This release has good video and acceptable audio and will no doubt please fans of the film. Rated as a rental only.

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