Then, a friend and co-worker is brutally murdered, mauled as if by an animal and missing his skin. It’s a pretty horrible murder, so Evan takes it upon himself to reach out to the community for help. He makes a passionate, ignored speech, and kicks off a neighbourhood watch program. The response is less than thrilling, with Bob (Vince Vaughn) wanting a break from raising a teenage girl and Franklin (Jonah Hill) wanting to be a real police officer without passing all those physical, psychological, and intelligence tests. Rounding out the group is Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade), a newcomer to town, recently divorced and looking to become active in the community. The script, from Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Jared Stern, is a shambling mess of elements that probably seemed a lot funnier when they were being created. The Watch is a classic ‘and then’ movie. There’s this guy and then he gets killed and then they find out that it was an alien and then there are more aliens and then this guy starts a neighborhood watch… and so on. The elements don’t connect together from scene to scene, stuff just seems to happen. As such, the movie is really hit-or-miss despite a loaded cast of comic actors. I’m not saying it doesn’t have funny moments – The Watch has some very good work, particularly from Richard Ayoade – but the movie seems really unfocused. Scenes kind of drift together and drift along without much sense of timing. Individual set pieces seem to just hang around a few beats too long. Scenes never end on a really strong joke, they just peter out after wringing every possible drop of potential comedy from a scenario. It’s strange to see the individual scenes drag when the movie itself is a relatively trim 101 minutes and the director, Akiva Schaffer, is the guy behind those Lonely Island SNL digital shorts. On all sides, this movie is loaded with interested, talented folks who have done good work in the past and may yet do good work in the future. Still, the movie never gels. It’s as if they all decided they wanted to have fun, hang out, and get paid to do a movie without putting too much effort into the whole task. This is one of those projects that had to be more fun to do than to see on the big screen. US Correspondent Ron Hogan would loathe being part of a neighborhood watch, even if it had funny people on patrol with him. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi.
title: “The Watch Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-07-19” author: “Evelia King”
Then, a friend and co-worker is brutally murdered, mauled as if by an animal and missing his skin. It’s a pretty horrible murder, so Evan takes it upon himself to reach out to the community for help. He makes a passionate, ignored speech, and kicks off a neighbourhood watch program. The response is less than thrilling, with Bob (Vince Vaughn) wanting a break from raising a teenage girl and Franklin (Jonah Hill) wanting to be a real police officer without passing all those physical, psychological, and intelligence tests. Rounding out the group is Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade), a newcomer to town, recently divorced and looking to become active in the community. The script, from Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Jared Stern, is a shambling mess of elements that probably seemed a lot funnier when they were being created. The Watch is a classic ‘and then’ movie. There’s this guy and then he gets killed and then they find out that it was an alien and then there are more aliens and then this guy starts a neighborhood watch… and so on. The elements don’t connect together from scene to scene, stuff just seems to happen. As such, the movie is really hit-or-miss despite a loaded cast of comic actors. I’m not saying it doesn’t have funny moments – The Watch has some very good work, particularly from Richard Ayoade – but the movie seems really unfocused. Scenes kind of drift together and drift along without much sense of timing. Individual set pieces seem to just hang around a few beats too long. Scenes never end on a really strong joke, they just peter out after wringing every possible drop of potential comedy from a scenario. It’s strange to see the individual scenes drag when the movie itself is a relatively trim 101 minutes and the director, Akiva Schaffer, is the guy behind those Lonely Island SNL digital shorts. On all sides, this movie is loaded with interested, talented folks who have done good work in the past and may yet do good work in the future. Still, the movie never gels. It’s as if they all decided they wanted to have fun, hang out, and get paid to do a movie without putting too much effort into the whole task. This is one of those projects that had to be more fun to do than to see on the big screen. US Correspondent Ron Hogan would loathe being part of a neighborhood watch, even if it had funny people on patrol with him. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi.
title: “The Watch Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-08-15” author: “Estelle Edwards”
But it doesn’t work. You knew that was coming, but this is one of those examples of where the underwhelming box office reception in the US was bang on the money. What’s particularly surprising about The Watch, though, is how its comedy talent fails to gel. In other areas, the film scores one or two minor successes – the effects work, for instance, is clearly where a good chunk of budget was well spent – yet when it comes to generating laughs (its main reason for being, surely), The Watch woefully, woefully falls short. The problem with Stiller and Vaughn, though, is that there’s nothing fresh for them here, and you can really tell. Both have been through these motions many times before in Hollywood comedies, and neither generates a single chuckle for the duration of the movie. It’s a real contrast in that sense from their last on-screen pairing, Dodgeball. The Watch gets nowhere near that level. Instead, what pitifully few laughs there are come from the other half of the quartet: the underused Jonah Hill (although he went through these motions far better in 21 Jump Street), and the excellent Richard Ayoade. There is another treat in the cast, incidentally, thanks to an all-too-brief cameo from R Lee Ermey. It’s still hard to find anyone who can cuss on screen with such conviction (outside of, perhaps, Sir Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast), and he’s not lost his touch. But the rest of The Watch turns out to be a bit of a chore, save for ripples of entertainment near the end. Most of the film is content to be a mix of product placement, prolonged jokes falling flat, and laboured scenes. There’s not much punch, not much pace, and painfully few interesting ideas. It’s a pity, as the original concept at least offered more than we get on the screen. Sadly, director Akiva Schaffer can’t and doesn’t do much with a screenplay that you sense simply isn’t up to the job. Many thanks to Cineworld Broad Street, Birmingham. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here
