The trailer for this movie was hilarious. The cast outstanding. Fusing the comedy genre with sci-fi? Hell yes! I was pumped to see what Lonely Island member turned director Akiva Shaffer could do. I always feel actors turned directors kind of have a leg up on directing with their previous acting experience. In this case, not so much.

Unfortunately in the instance of The Watch, you can go ahead and get out your big balloon filled with hope of a fun time, blow it all the way up, then let go and watch it deflate all over the room. This movie was a big huge wha-whomp, however, there were a couple redeeming lines and scenes.

A couple.

Taking place in Everytown, Ohio, Evan (Ben Stiller) takes his job at Cost-Co very seriously. When one of his co-workers mysteriously dies (Spoiler Alert: His death has to do with the alien), Evan takes it on himself to form The Neighborhood Watch.

Stiller teams up with Jonah Hill, Vince Vaughn, and Richard Ayoade to watch the neighborhood. Of course there are slip-ups, but none of it is very funny. I have legitimately never seen more people in a theater checking their phones multiple times throughout the entire duration of a movie before.

Wouldn’t you check your phone, too, if the movie was somewhat of a trainwreck? All of it is just very sloppily written. Most of the jokes hardly make you say “ha.” All of the actors are their great, goofy selves, but the humor is just not there. What’s aggravating about it is that it was such a funny idea; the town screw-ups find an alien and have to save the entire town when no one’s going to believe them? Great idea. Unbearable execution.

The funniest moments of this entire movie are in the trailer, please don’t pay money to watch it. The only way this movie could possibly be funny is if you were on copious amounts of drugs. Like, really illegal amounts of drugs. I don’t know about you, but I try to avoid run-ins with the law. I’m also gonna try run-ins with this movie in any way, shape, or form.

Synopsis:

Suburban dads who form a neighborhood watch group as a way to get out of their day-to-day family routines find themselves defending the Earth from an alien invasion.