Read More @HJ Previews: Trailer, Overview David Bruce, Web Master

This day and age, you can pretty much hire someone to do anything for you. You can hire someone to do your taxes. You can pay someone to change your oil. And this spring, three high school boys a bit short on popularity and a bit heavier on cash show us that money can even buy personal protection from a high school bully.

Call it absurd. Brush it off as unrealistic. But before you do, take a minute and ask yourself if you were in the boys' situation if you wouldn't do the exact same thing. Ask yourself if all you could see in front of you was complete failure and humiliation, your own inability to do anything about it, and someone else's ability to do something about it, if you wouldn't call on the help of that pinch-hitter also. And if you wouldn't, why not?

Soon after Drillbit Taylor opens, the situation that Ryan (Troy Gentile), Wade (Nate Hartley), and Emmit (David Dorfman) find themselves in is, at least by high school standards, hopeless. Before their first day of school is over, they have been humiliated by Filkins (Alex Frost), the high school bully. They have been singled out as the official outcasts of their new school. And in a world where the same boys spent the night before making sure they had the right outfits and reminding each other of their newer cooler nicknames, to be knocked to that lowest rung of popularity is nothing less than devastating.

Fortunately for the boys, and unfortunately for himself, Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), an ex-Army Ranger, is in a bit of a dead-end situation also. He lives in a tent in the bushes, he showers on the beach, he panhandles at intersections, and for reasons we don't learn until later, he really can't obtain any legitimate work to get himself out of his situation. As he tells his friend, the only thing left for him to do is to leave his life here and escape to Canada. All he has to do is make enough money to buy a ticket out of town. And when the boys' advertise for a bodyguard, not only does Drillbit become the ticket out of their hopelessness, they become his.

From Drillbit teaching the boys his goofy fighting techniques to him pretending to be a substitute teacher so he can keep Filkins in line, the story is funny, entertaining, and heartwarming. Although Drillbit is not in it for anything other than the money when he first takes the job, as he puts more and more of himself into the task, the job becomes about something more. With Drillbit watching their back, the boys begin to taste what high school could be like when they don't have to spend all their time avoiding bullies. And with a mission and the sense of belonging that has come with it, Drillbit begins to see that his life is not something that demands escape.

But as we all know, when things start going smoothly, there will always be a wrench to complicate them. With secrets surfacing all around, suddenly the perfect world the boys and Drillbit have created begins to fall apart. Drillbit topples from his short-lived place of belonging. The boys are shoved from their temporary enclave of safety. The very things that both Drillbit and the boys were trying to escape step right back up to center stage. And as the boys and Drillbit see that these things are something they must face, they show us all that when it comes to getting past seemingly hopeless situations in our own lives, it isn't a matter of either facing them all on our own or handing them off to someone else; in the end, it is equally necessary to both recognize our own abilities to face the things that taunt us and to call on and accept the help of others.

In my own life, my need for both is something I have to be reminded of time and time again. When it comes to certain things, sometimes all I want to do is throw the towel to someone else and let them take over. I've wished for a Job Genie more times than I can count. I don't even want to touch my computer when something starts going wrong with it. And when it comes to my track record in the dating and relationship arena, let's just say I'm starting to think that hiring a matchmaker really isn't that crazy of an idea. The thing is, every time I wish someone else would come in and take over for me, I also know that if I were to just sit back and do nothing, I would lose something in the process. Without stepping up and facing life's difficult times, I would never fully recognize either the value of what I seek at their end or the capabilities I have to offer as I continue to live this life and face the ups and downs that are a part of it.

But, on the other side of the coin, in a world where we can often feel like our own limitations are the end of it all, recognizing that getting through life is not meant to be a solo operation is just as valuable. As much as stepping up and giving life our best efforts is important, there come times when there is nothing more we can give. Sometimes we've never had what is needed, sometimes we can't see that we have it, and other times it is taken away from us by any number of situations or circumstances. And as someone who has been as close to the end of my rope as you could ever be, I have to say, the simple realization that there is strength and help beyond me may very well be the only thing that ultimately kept me from completely giving up.

At the end of it all, Drillbit Taylor is a story about three boys and one man who make it through hard times and find themselves in the process. They do so by opening their eyes to their own abilities and having faith in themselves. But the interesting thing for Drillbit as well as the boys is that it is actually through each other that they are finally able to see the value in themselves. And when it comes down to all that they each have to offer, it is in the service of others that they truly shine the most.