Role Models

Role Models

Not exactly the best comedy in the world. That doesn’t matter because I had a lot of fun with Role Models. There are many lines and scenes that made me laugh and that’s all I need for a raunchy comedy. But, there is more to the movie than gay and poop jokes, there is heart too. The story is simple, but the actors are the real reasons the story works as it does.

Like Zack & Miri Make a Porno, there is a fun little message in this film that is full of nudity and cussing. And also like Zack & Miri, this movie feels like a Judd Apatow movie, even though he has nothing to do with it. Hell, I half expected Seth Rogen to have a cameo in this movie, though it didn’t happen. The cast is full of Apatow actors.

When two f-ups are court-ordered to enroll in a Big Brother type program, they receive two of the worst kids in the bunch. As they go through the motions to fill out their court-ordered days in the program, they start to like the kids.

Director David Wain does a fair job with all the character scenes and just lets the actors make up certain things as they go along. However, the live medieval role-playing scenes are a true treat. Wain directs these scenes as if they are real action scenes. And it is fun to see grown-ups running around and acting like they’re from Middle Earth.

You will enjoy the role-playing scenes.

Pros

-Paul Rudd: Sure Rudd is playing the same type of character he’s played in the Judd Apatow films, but I can relate to this character. He’s a guy that appears to hate human interaction and gets frustrated with stupid people. He’s disconnected from people.

-Seann William Scott: He’s just playing Stifler again, but I like him in this role. He has a strange furry/sex thing in the deleted scenes.

-Bobb'e J. Thompson: He’s the bad-mouthed little kid in the movie and he is freaking great. Thompson is the best thing about this movie. You will love this kid.

Cons

-There really isn’t a reason for Scott and Rudd’s characters to be friends and I believe the movie never gives us the back-story into why these two are friends. It’s only a minor point.

-Elizabeth Banks: I love Ms Banks, but her role here is rather bland and underused. Most of her stuff ended up on the cutting room floor.

With a simple story, the movie really shines in the same way Kevin Smith’s movie (Zack & Miri) does with the raunchiness and poop jokes. You can have all the dirty jokes in the world, but you have to have characters I cheer for and movie has it. It handles the R-rated material with the touching bonding story with ease.

Grade: B