The Watch

A great cast including Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade assembles for a mess of a movie that nonetheless produces a fair amount of laughs. Stiller plays the manager of a Costco where an employee turns up dead under mysterious circumstances. He initiates a neighborhood watch—and they soon find that their town is being invaded by aliens. Much of the blame for this film’s faults fall on director Akiva Schaffer, whose previous effort was the Andy Samberg misfire Hot Rod. Schaffer does a good-enough job of drawing funny moments from his ensemble, but the alien-invasion angle feels like an afterthought more than the driving force of the plot. The script was co-written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the guys who wrote Pineapple Express, a film near and dear to my heart. I envisioned Ghostbusters with aliens and a lot of curse words. Instead, it’s a mess with just enough laughs to mildly recommend it.