2011 was a pretty good year for Richard Ayoade. In addition to writing a very entertaining column for Total Film, the star of The IT Crowd directed his first feature film, the quirky but affecting Submarine. And in between all of that, the man who will forever be Morris Moss found time to co-star in a movie with three of the biggest names in American comedy.
Directed by Hot Rod's Akiva Schaffer and written by Seth Rogen (50/50) and Evan Goldberg (Goon), The Watch stars Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill and Mr Ayoade as a quartet of suburban dads who form a neighbourhood watch group in large part so that they can enjoy some time away from their families. What starts out as a lark becomes altogether more serious when our heroes encounter extra-terrestrials bent on conquering the world!
Co-starring Billy Crudup, Will Forte and Doug Jones - who adds 'alien' to a CV that already includes the Silver Surfer and Hellboy's Abe Sapien - The Watch had a lot riding on it, what with it having been a while since either Stiller or Vaughn had had a hit. Would that the film had more going for it than a performance from Ayoade that couldn’t be less Hollywood - ‘quirky’ really isn’t the half of it - while being completely in keeping with his earlier work.
Indeed, the Garth Marenghi star proves such an unusual big-screen presence, the fact The Watch is but the latest comedy with barely enough laughs to pad out a trailer is really neither here nor here. How one would like to believe that a Dean Learner biopic was in the works…