Role Models - Movie Review and Synopsis

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Category: Movies. Tags: Bobb'e J. Thompson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Comedy, David Wain, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Rudd, Role Models, Seann William Scott.

Wild behavior forces a pair of energy drink reps to enroll in a Big Brother program. Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott star in Role Models as Danny and Wheeler, two salesmen who trash a company truck on an energy drink-fueled bender. Upon their arrest, the court gives them a choice: do hard time or spend 150 hours with a mentorship program.

After one day with the kids, however, jail doesn’t look half bad. Once the center’s ex-con director (Jane Lynch) gives them an ultimatum, Danny and Wheeler are forced to tailor their brand of immature wisdom to their charges, Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and Ronnie (Bobb’e J. Thompson). And if they can just make it through probation without getting thrown in jail, the world’s worst role models will prove that, sometimes, it takes a village idiot to raise a child.

David Wain (The Ten) isn’t nearly as famous as Judd Apatow, but he got his career started the same way (both guys turned oddball comedy shows into cult hits in the early/mid-90s) before taking tentative steps toward the big screen. And from the sound of this movie’s premise, it appears that Wain is learning the lesson Apatow aced a few years ago: Get less cerebral with your comedy, rotate key players through your projects, and gun for the hard-R rating. I’m curious as to why these Models earned a winter release when they are clearly a summer-movie confection, though it is a savvy and rather funny counter-programming effort by Universal.

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