As someone who has studied movies for decades, I feel that I know a great deal about the nuts and bolts of how a feature film is made. And yet, there are still some behind-the-scenes questions which remain a mystery to me. Does the producer read the whole script or do they just go off the main idea (pitch)? We hear stories about the studio not being happy with dailies (footage) all the time, but is someone looking over the director's shoulder on every movie? How much power does a director really have on the set and over the content of the movie? I ask these questions when I view a movie like The Watch because movies cost millions of dollars to make and when one is going to undertake an expensive project, there needs to be proper planning and control.

As The Watch opens, we meet Evan (Ben Stiller), a very happy man who lives in a suburban town in Ohio. He's happily married, loves his job as the manager of Costco, and has a passion for organizing clubs. When one of his employees is brutally murdered, Evan decides to organize a neighborhood watch. But, only three candidates step up to the task. Bob (Vince Vaughn) is a loud-mouth who is more interesting in partying than a good cause. Franklin (Jonah Hill) wants to be a police officer, but as he failed the entry exam, he hopes to find some action on the neighborhood watch. Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade) is new to the area and is simply looking for some guys to hang out with. Evan isn't very happy with the fact that none of the team is taking his mission seriously, but this all changes when they begin to suspect that their community is under attack by aliens. When the local police -- led by Sergeant Bressman (Will Forte) -- prove to be useless, Evan and his friends decide to handle the invasion their own way.

To be fair, The Watch does have some funny moments and there is one line which made me laugh so hard that I had to pause the movie. One of the plot twists was truly surprising (to me at least), and if you go back and watch a key scene, you’ll see the foreshadowing of it. I applaud the use of actual guy-in-a-suit (genre vet Doug Jones) aliens for some scenes, as opposed to wall-to-wall CGI, as this creates a much more visceral feel. And, again, kudos to the producers for securing three big names in modern comedy, and taking a chance on a relatively unknown actor to round out the cast. (He’s the Winston Zedmore of the group!)

So, where did The Watch go wrong? For starters, the movie can never stick with a tone. As with the aforementioned Men in Black and Ghostbusters, The Watch wants to find a balance between comedy and sci-fi action, but it never does, as the genres never gel and the movie is constantly swinging erratically between the two. Evan may be the most underwritten and uneven character ever in a movie, as Stiller plays him as serious in one scene and manic in another, given the feeling that two different movies were shot and then edited together. (Despite this, one can’t help but feel that Stiller is simply playing the same neurotic character which he plays in most of his movies...except this one isn’t particularly funny.) The movie also runs a bit too far with its R rating. I’m all for raunchy humor, but you should never let that detour or detain the film. The movie also makes the mistake of being yet another movie which doesn’t seem to understand middle America. Isn’t it funny that Evan is the manager at Costco? Not really. Somebody has to be the manager of a Costco and I’m sure it’s a thankless job, so making light of this fact comes off as elitist and ignorant.

I’m not necessarily a stickler when it comes to movies sticking to the script. If someone comes up with a good line or idea while on-set, there’s no reason to ignore it. However, I am a firm believer in having a solid screenplay locked down before filming begins and that it should be used as the guiding principle during production. The Watch strikes me as the kind of movie which, while it didn’t have a wholly original idea, could have been a fun genre mashup. However, it completely goes off the rails and turns into a movie which is somewhat funny and has interesting action scenes, but leaves the viewer cold.

The Watch offers a very awkward cameo by Andy Samberg on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 30 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no notable grain and no defects from the source materials. The image is never overly dark or bright, and the colors look good. The picture is very crisp, which lends it a nice amount of depth, even in the nighttime sequences. The level of detail is good and we can make out the textures on objects. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.2 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are good and show nice separation. There are several moments where sounds from off-screen shine in the front channels. The surround sound effects really come to life in the action scenes, especially when an alien is stalking someone. We get some good individually-placed sounds in the rear. The subwoofer gets a workout in the finale.