'Models' produces big giggles
By Bruce R. Miller | Posted: Friday, November 14, 2008
"Role Models" has just enough giggles to make it worth seeing.
It's not a great film, just an above-average comedy that succeeds with lines you wish you'd thought of.
Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott star as energy drink salesmen who get in trouble with the law when Rudd has a meltdown at a high school rally. They're given a choice -- 30 days in jail or 150 hours of community service.
They choose the latter, but regret the decision once they realize they're going to be mentors to two kids in a program called Sturdy Wings.
The boys they've been assigned are chronic problems. One (Bobb'e J. Thompson) swears worse than a rapper. The other (Christopher Mintze-Plasse) is caught in a world of dungeons, dragons and role-play. They're hardly a good fit for guys who can't find direction in their own lives.
Still, they give it a shot. A camping trip cracks the ice. A renaissance battle defrosts it completely.
Between that very good beginning and very good end, however, director David Wain has some very dead spots. Thankfully, they're not around when Jane Lynch -- as the program's founder -- cracks the whip. She's immediately recognizable and filled with lines that inspire some of those fits of giggles.
Rudd and Scott get them, too, when they're driving around in a company car designed to look like its signature drink, Minotaur. When Scott dons a mascot's outfit, you can almost guess the cracks that will follow.
Still, "Role Models" isn't warmed-over Adam Sandler.
Rudd and Scott find new dimensions to their big-screen personas (Scott is much more likable than he has been in recent years) and Mintze-Plasse is so heartbreakingly needy, you won't think of him as "Superbad's" McLoven anymore.
As the geeky kid who doesn't know how to fit in, Mintze-Plasse finds the laughs, but also the tears. When he gets the mentors to help fight his battle, you feel a sense of victory for everyone.
Wain doesn't elevate the nerd (a Judd Apatow trick), he understands him. By pairing him with a guy who once had it all together, you see the pain in both their lives.
It's a smart movie, tricked out with plenty of profanity. Get past the words (and that boring middle) and "Role Models" could be a template for better films to come.
Rated R, "Role Models" features profanity, nudity and adult situations.
On a scale of four stars, it gets 2 1/2 stars
It's not a great film, just an above-average comedy that succeeds with lines you wish you'd thought of.
Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott star as energy drink salesmen who get in trouble with the law when Rudd has a meltdown at a high school rally. They're given a choice -- 30 days in jail or 150 hours of community service.
They choose the latter, but regret the decision once they realize they're going to be mentors to two kids in a program called Sturdy Wings.
The boys they've been assigned are chronic problems. One (Bobb'e J. Thompson) swears worse than a rapper. The other (Christopher Mintze-Plasse) is caught in a world of dungeons, dragons and role-play. They're hardly a good fit for guys who can't find direction in their own lives.
Still, they give it a shot. A camping trip cracks the ice. A renaissance battle defrosts it completely.
Between that very good beginning and very good end, however, director David Wain has some very dead spots. Thankfully, they're not around when Jane Lynch -- as the program's founder -- cracks the whip. She's immediately recognizable and filled with lines that inspire some of those fits of giggles.
Rudd and Scott get them, too, when they're driving around in a company car designed to look like its signature drink, Minotaur. When Scott dons a mascot's outfit, you can almost guess the cracks that will follow.
Still, "Role Models" isn't warmed-over Adam Sandler.
Rudd and Scott find new dimensions to their big-screen personas (Scott is much more likable than he has been in recent years) and Mintze-Plasse is so heartbreakingly needy, you won't think of him as "Superbad's" McLoven anymore.
As the geeky kid who doesn't know how to fit in, Mintze-Plasse finds the laughs, but also the tears. When he gets the mentors to help fight his battle, you feel a sense of victory for everyone.
Wain doesn't elevate the nerd (a Judd Apatow trick), he understands him. By pairing him with a guy who once had it all together, you see the pain in both their lives.
It's a smart movie, tricked out with plenty of profanity. Get past the words (and that boring middle) and "Role Models" could be a template for better films to come.
Rated R, "Role Models" features profanity, nudity and adult situations.
On a scale of four stars, it gets 2 1/2 stars
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