"Role Models" Film Review

Bug's Take:
Asshole. Boobs. Fuck. Spontaneous gay jokes. Do any or all of these offend you? I guess on some levels any and all should, but in Role Models, they are referenced often and often humorously.

Role Models starts off as most comedies should – with a dysfunctional duo demonstrating their role in life and franchising witty, hilarious banter. But there has to be plenty of funny in a movie where the premise is two thirty-something male friends who after some unfortunate and slightly illegal shenanigans, are sentenced to community service and if they don’t complete it, they’re off to jail. Simple enough, but Danny (played by Paul Rudd who also co-wrote the movie) and Wheeler (played marvelously and quaintly chauvinistic by Seann William Scott) are great at making the plot seem less transparent. Wheeler in his ‘dumb but means well most of the time’ personality and Danny with his downtrodden mannerisms and “realistic” view on life (how it sucks and is unfair, etc.)

I don’t mind reviews of movies including quotes, but in Role Models, there’s far too many and they start shortly after the credits. It’s the little things – the funny within the funny – that writers Rudd and David Wain (who also directs) include throughout the charming, albeit somewhat predictable, film.

The word charming is not one I like to use often because it’s a boring way to describe a movie, any movie, but using the MS Word thesaurus seems like cheating. Besides, it comes up with words like attractive, delightful and captivating, which Role Models isn’t. But the film does make you like all its characters, such as Danny’s girlfriend (played by the adorable Elizabeth Banks), the young four-letter word using, boob-loving Ronnie (Bobb’e J. Thompson) who is Wheeler’s “little”, and even the dirty-minded, overly-chatty-about-her-drug-addictions “founder of Sturdy Wings” played by Jane Lynch.

As the film goes on (in the middle especially), the “funny fog” lifts momentarily and goes for the heartstrings but at that point, you almost want it to because you’re routing for Danny and Wheeler and the boys they are “mentoring” to get everything they want out of life.

The movie ends on some comic high notes and overall, the film is a go-seer. On the list of top great comedies, Role Models wouldn’t meet the standards required to make it, but there’s enough in it to go watch it, chuckle some at the silliness of Augie’s (check out McLovin in his new role!) fantasy world, and feel good that you spent an hour and a half of time increasing the dents in your laugh lines around your cheeks.

B!'s Take:
Let’s get to the business at hand, which is my male perspective review of the movie “Role Models” starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, written by Paul Rudd, David Wain, Ken Marino and Timothy Dowling, and directed by David Wain.

First things first, this movie is funny. Not funny in the sense that there are a few spots put here and there that make you giggle and you remember laughing at the movie while you are walking to your car. Nope, it’s funny in the sense that the next day you will think of something you saw during the movie and it will still make you giggle inside your head so much that you want to just shout out the line that made you laugh at some innocent person standing in the next line at the grocery store.

I won’t go as far as to say it was the funniest movie I’ve ever seen, because I don’t think that can truly be measured. It was definitely the funniest movie I saw that night, and there is something to be said about that. It is always a nice turn of events when a comedy actually makes me (and everyone around me in the theater) laugh out loud several times instead of having me sit there wondering what idiot green-lighted this script.

The strength of this movie does not come from its plot, which seems to be in place just so the writers could have an excuse to show some of the funny characters they have created. Usually it is a bad sign when there are more than one or two writers on a script since in writing more writers almost never creates better writing. Instead, the strength comes from the casting and performances of the vast majority of the parts in the movie from the leads on down to the bit actors.

Seann William Scott plays yet another version of Stiffler from the American Pie franchise, which is okay by me because as far as I’m concerned, that’s exactly where he belongs on screen. He plays the character that gets all the hot girls even though he is mostly an idiot and sort of a douche. He manages to say all the things most guys want to say but don’t and he gets to hook up with all the girls most guys want to hook up with but can’t. He’s sort of my hero.

Paul Rudd also plays another version of every character he has played in every movie he has been in (except for the very funny surfer-guy character he played in Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and this character is almost an extension of the character he played in Knocked Up. And, once again, that is exactly where he belongs on screen. Nearly everything that comes out of his mouth is funny, and I get the impression that one reason he got a lead writing credit on this film is because he improvised a great deal of it (think of the Line-O-Rama DVD extras on any Judd Apatow film for reference).

The other characters in the movie are so well cast and so well performed that most of them need to be seen to be appreciated. I honestly cannot think of one bit part that wasn’t funny in some way or another. A special warning, though, for those of you who are sensitive to adult humor: This movie is rated R for a very good reason. It wouldn’t have been one quarter as funny if they’d toned it down to catch a PG or even a PG-13 rating. It is the rated R language and visuals that make this movie what it is.

That being said, let me tell you what this film has: comedy, cussing, boobs, swordplay, a big truck shaped like a bull, some more boobs, more comedy, male nudity (for some reason that is ALWAYS funny) and a pretty nice dose of Elizabeth Banks and a very nice dose of some other girls.

Now for what the film doesn’t have: Academy Award aspirations, a compelling plot (you can see the plot points coming from miles away), grandparents in the audience (seriously, unless you have one of those “cool” grandmas who gets drunk or high at family gatherings and flashes everyone, don’t bring her along, grandpa might like some of the boob shots at the very least since they aren’t grandmas for once) or a reason for them to make a crappy sequel.

My recommendation: this movie is definitely Worth Full Price. I need to go back and see it again in the theater so I can catch some jokes I missed because the audience was laughing too loud. And I can’t wait for it to come out on DVD, just for the Line-O-Rama.

B!