UPDATE “The Watch” is down to 11% on rottentomatoes.com.
This column was the first to report that “Neighborhood Watch” would have to change its name and pull its ads, etc because of the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman tragedy. Now it’s coming tomorrow under the name “The Watch” and the reviews are scathing. Rottentomatoes.com has it around 13%, which is very low. There have been a few lower this year, but not many. Fox held the reviews until today, and as they appear they get worse and worse. Ben Stiller seemed very unenthusiastic on Jimmy Kimmel the other night, too. In his New Yorker profile, Stiller frets about his work and how he’s viewed. I thought in Noah Baumbach’s “Greenberg,” and on Broadway in “The House of Blue Leaves,” Stiller was exceptional. (I also love “Tropic Thunder,” and I can’t explain why. Just goofy great.) Stiller is capable of so much more than something like “The Watch” ( which I haven’t seen, to be fair). Let’s hope he goes in another direction. But between “The Watch” and its current events crisis, and “The Dark Knight Rises” with its own tragedy, this part of the summer is turning into p.r. disaster. Look for “The Watch” to tank over the weekend. Fox has better stuff coming, anyway.
