Rated R for crude and sexual content, strong language and nudity.
101 Minutes

Directed By: David Wain
Written By: Paul Rudd and David Wain
Staring: Paul Rudd, Sean William Scott, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Elizabeth Banks, and Jane Lynch

You white, then you Ben Affleck. -Ronnie

Synopsis

Wild behavior forces a pair of energy drink reps to enroll in a Big Brother program.

Review

Role Models is not your run of the mill comedy, though it elicits the same feeling as those by the numbers funnies, it definitely has it’s own ingenuity and creativity, not to mention some Sean William Scott vulgarity and typical Paul Rudd dry humor.  What we love most about both these comedic actors is what this films structures itself around.

The idea of two adult men begrudgingly being sentenced to one-hundred and fifty hours in thirty days to spend doing a community service that involves children seems a bit harsh to even me, and I have my own kids.  Paul Rudd playing the irritable guy who hates everybody and everything is paired with the kid who doesn’t want to grow up and lives in imagination land.  Sean William Scott is paired with the mini version of himself, and the two together make for hysterical scenes.  It’s comic utopia and pulled off by the right actors in the right roles.

As funny as Role Models was there were two major problems I had, and they each involved the kids.  The film was obviously ridiculous, but my suspension of disbelief does require a certain level of realism, and some of the points the story made was contradictory. Auggie was this older kid, who loved fantasy and was only a part of the Big/Little program because his guidance counselor told his parents he should go to make friends.  ButAuggie had a bigger group of friends then most kids his age.  He had an entire group that embraced his obsession with the world of fantasy just as much as he did, and accepted him just as he was.  That’s more than most “normal” kids have.  That was a huge distraction for me, even though the mocking and jokes in those situations were still hilarious.  The other part that seemed to be a distraction was Ronnie’s mom.  I was sold on him being a vulgar, foul mouthed little boy, but when he cursed and insulted Sean William Scott in front of his mother and she lovingly touched him saying, “He can be tough”, I was like: what just happened?  His relationship to Sean William Scott, worked, was funny and made sense, but his mother not even noticing how inappropriate he was didn’t fit, especially when every other person in the movie pointed out how obnoxious the kid was.

The best part of the movie was Jane Lynch.  She is so bizarre, and her weirdness was perfectly utilized in this movie.  Her character may have been a lot like other characters she’s played but she pulls of the awkwardly sensual nut ball off in spades.  Every scene she was in was totally unsettling, but at the same instance I couldn’t remove my eyes from her, or stop laughing.  She has a very unique quality that makes for fantastic comedy.

There were some corny moments, obvious happy endings, and a certain paint by numbers quality, but the road to the predictable finish was a strange and funny one.  Role Models may have just been a case of a movie that was a little better than it should have been.  It had enough funny moments and hysterical performances that it overcame the scenes that didn’t make sense and made the character contradictions mostly forgivable.  This movie will have you laughing continuously and that isn’t that the goal of most comedies?  The Verdict?  A comedy worth the rental, but maybe not the purchase.

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