During a bland scene in which they speed-date applicants — why couldn't Brill, with his feet planted in two A-list comedy troops, find any name talent for these cameos? — one of the job-seekers, a stringy-haired bum named Drillbit (Owen Wilson) catches their attention. Impressing them with tales of a hush-hush military past that included "watching C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate" he is accepted into their club, which also includes a Hobbit-like third-wheel called Emmit, played by The Ring's David Dorfman. Drillbit's no-good friends are soon advising him to steal the kids' televisions "so that they will play more outdoors" and he follows that advice, using a Santa sack to cart loot from their homes to a local pawn shop when they aren't looking. He also begins a sustained impersonation of a substitute teacher (the better to protect them during school hours) and starts romancing an English teacher played by Judd Apatow's wife, Leslie Mann, guaranteeing a too-long third act in which these deceptions will be redressed.

Owen Wilson's presence goes a long way toward crowding out the two natural leads; we even have to accept pointless cut-ins of him lounging in his highway-side bum's paradise before his big entrance in the job applicant scene. If he had simply been plunked down at that juncture, the audience would have lost nothing and there would have been more get-to-know-you time with Ryan and Wade. As a result, they can only sustain one major character trait apiece, with Ryan being an aspiring white rapper and Wade having the hots for an Asian schoolmate. The latter subplot is the more successful one, leading up to a funny scene in which he intrudes on her Asian Heritage Club meeting and tries, lamely, to convince her that he's part-Asian. Drillbit Taylor presents nothing blindingly new for fans of Apatow- or Sandler-style humor and when watching it, one can hear the faint rustling of old scripts being yanked from drawers for a timely cash-in, but with his high-school memories now hopefully exhausted, maybe Rogen has a good college yarn to spin.

— Ryan Stewart