The Watch | What to Watch

(Image credit: photo credit Melinda Sue Gordon)

A fun sci-fi comedy. 3/5 stars

Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade play the members of a hapless Ohio neighbourhood watch team who have to battle aliens.

But antsy do-gooder Stiller struggles to turn party-hearty Vaughn, immature police force reject Hill and randy newly-divorced Brit Ayoade into zealous civic vigilantes, until he discovers that a bunch of slimy extraterrestrials are plotting an invasion from the basement of his cash-and-carry superstore.

With this cast and premise, comedy fireworks should be guaranteed but the film suffers from a slapdash script and sluggish handling, which keeps it in the slow lane.

However, the big-name cast is still well worth watching.

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.