I very rarely bother going to see comedy films while they’re still in theaters, unless the movie in question has generated lots of good reviews or word-of-mouth buzz. This happened with There’s Something About Mary (a film I never would have seen based on previews alone) a decade ago, and more recently with Tropic Thunder over the summer. I really had no intention of going to see the Paul Rudd-Seann William Scott flick Role Models either, but was swayed by a couple of positive reviews from top critics including Roger Ebert. What a mistake that turned out to be!
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Danny (played by Rudd) and Wheeler (Scott) are two energy drink reps who go around to elementary schools pitching the Minotaur drink brand as an alternative to drugs. One day, Danny, who is upset because he realizes he has spent the last 10 years in this dead-end job and because his girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks) turned down his marriage proposal, flips out when he sees the company truck being towed and ends up damaging school property. Danny and Wheeler are then brought up on various misdemeanor charges and must perform 150 hours of community service to avoid jail time.
The two are sent to a program called Sturdy Wings, which is essentially like a Big Brothers deal. Danny is paired up with Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a lonely teen whose only joy in life is playing a fantasy game called L.A.I.R.E., while Wheeler is matched to a 10-year-old boy named Ronnie (Bobb’e J. Thompson) whose claim to fame is that no big lasts longer than a day with him.
Of course, at the beginning, Danny and Wheeler hate their community service assignments, dislike being around kids, and have nothing in common with their matches. But as the film progresses, the two men grow to develop genuine relationships with Augie and Ronnie, and emerge as better men because of the experience.
My Reaction: I was able to enjoy Role Models to a point, but then the film got bogged down in repetitive jokes and an inexplicable decision to play out the entire third act on the L.A.I.R.E. battlefield. Apparently, the writers think that the absolute height of comedy is to have young kids drop f-bombs and to have adults curse up a storm in the presence of kids because that’s basically what the Wheeler-Ronnie relationship amounted to. This was funny at first, but after the initial shock value wore off, it just became tiresome.
And I don’t get why so much time was spent on L.A.I.R.E. in the third act. Yes, Augie was a funny character in that sort of nerd-in-a-fantasy-world way, and yes, I get that the writers wanted to show how much Danny had come to care for Augie. After being resistant to the whole idea of L.A.I.R.E. for two-thirds of the movie, he finally gives in and plays as a way to connect with Augie. But did we as an audience really have to sit through a good 15 minutes of that stuff? Or to see the guys ridiculously dressed up as KISS band members? Those scenes weren’t funny at all; just dumb and boring. Wow, what a miscalculation on the writers’ part to devote so much time to this stuff…
Overall, while Role Models was definitely watchable and even funny in some parts, it simply doesn’t live up to expectations based on the positive reviews it has received. I give the film 2 stars out of 5, and recommend that you not bother catching this one in theaters.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.