Crudely Funny Role Models a Slight Diversion
Best friends Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott) spend their days traveling to public schools speaking on the dangers of using drugs while shilling a lime green energy drink. The former feels like his life is going absolutely nowhere and he’s not afraid to get all cynically morose and annoyingly depressive when talking about it, the latter more than happy to don his giant furry minotaur outfit and sleep with a series of hot chicks with not a single worry as to what his future might be.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott and Bobb'e J. Thompson in Universal Pictures' Role Models
After Danny’s longtime lawyer girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks) dumps him, the businessman goes on an impulsive rampage resulting in the destruction of both company and school property, demolishing a tow truck while in the process of doing so. As both men were in the vehicle at the time of the event, both of them are assigned a 150 hours of community service to be completed at a local children’s help center. Ample opportunities for gross-out comedic mayhem, as well as a tiny bit of emotional maturation, ensues.
Other than a scant few exceptions (Tropic Thunder, The Pineapple Express, Sex Drive) there have been very few successful R-rated comedies this years. I’m not talking financially (just because You Don’t Mess with the Zohan and Step Brothers were hits doesn’t mean they were good), I’m talking about their entertainment value, almost every single one of the comedies released this year so beyond horrible it almost pains me to think about them.
Considering director David Wain made one of my least favorite comedies of all time with last year’s The Ten I can’t exactly say I had very high hopes for his latest effort Role Models. The trailers certainly didn’t change my perception, and even with the presence of Superbad scene-stealer Christopher Mintz-Plasse in a lead role very little about this one looked even remotely appealing.
It’s nice to be proven wrong, especially when my error is as snidely entertaining as this one was. No two ways about it, even though much of me knew better I had a great little time watching this film play itself out, and even though I knew it didn’t really have anywhere new or different to go the fact I laughed fairly regularly throughout was more than enough for me.
Not that the film was without its speed bumps. There are long stretches where the whole thing just sits there idling aimlessly searching for something interesting to do, while some of the more overtly sexual bits don’t play out near as hilariously as the filmmakers obviously think they do. Pictures like this one are by their very nature juvenile, and it is only when they revel in that prepubescent idiocy that this juvenility becomes something of an annoying embarrassment.
Role Models has that problem. Thankfully, it doesn’t have it to the point watching the film itself becomes anything close to a chore. It may not always work, and while some of the bigger jokes simply do not connect in the slightest, there is still a snarky sarcastic wit to much of it I admittedly adored. Even better, unlike those aforementioned Sandler and Ferrell disasters this one never mocks its characters. If anything it embraces them, warts and all, their eventual maturation even somewhat inspiring by the time all else if ultimately said and done.
I’m probably not going to remember this one much longer than the time it takes to write this review. Heck, I saw the thing almost two full weeks ago and I’m even now having a bit of trouble recollecting what it exactly it was I liked about the darn thing (not entirely true – I adored Rudd in this and now can’t imagine the movie without him) but that fact doesn’t bother me near as much as it probably should. The only thing that really matters is that Role Models made me laugh, and considering how little else has in 2008 that’s a gift I’m not exactly going to complain about.
Film Rating: êê1/2 (out of 4)
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