Role Models

Role Models



I know that I ceaselessly complain about the lack of decent comedy these days. How I'm always fondly reminiscing about the olden days when comedy was actually funny. When Leslie Nielsen was a king and Eddie Murphy was a genius. Back when Steve Martin's hair was white. You get the picture.

I'm still quietly hopeful that a film will emerge that will be consistently funny from beginning to end, making me laugh 'til I poop. As they say, opinions are like arseholes... they all stink of shit.

Danny Donohue (Paul Rudd) is disillusioned with life. He hates his job as an energy drink spokesman and wonders where he's headed. His defeatist attitude to life drives away his girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth banks) and ultimately leads to him having a meltdown.

At a school where he's promoting the energy drink with his care-free and care-less friend Wheeler (Seann William Scott), he gets into an argument with a tow-truck driver ending with them crashing into the school statue.

Danny and Wheeler are given the choice of a thirty days prison sentence or 150 hours community service. They opt for the community service as Wheeler protests they'll be raped in prison.

Their community service assignment is a Big-brothers styled program where they each must spend time with a troubled kid. Danny is teamed with Augie (Christopher Mintz Plasse); an oddball teen who likes nothing more than his live-action medieval role-playing games. Wheeler teams up with Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson) a potty mouthed kid who likes boobies.

At first Danny and Wheeler are only interested in running down the hours, but they soon bond with the kids and learn things about themselves in the process. Danny learns to open up and enjoy life, whilst Wheeler realises the importance of forging real and lasting relationships.

Seann William Scott is always a safe pair of hands when it comes to comedy, especially playing a carbon copy of Stifler. Paul Rudd is solid as the straight man to foil Wheeler's antics. But it's neither them nor McLovin' that take centre stage here, the spotlight is squarely on little Ronnie. Bobb'e J. Thompson may be small but he gets the biggest laughs – All the best one liners come from him. Only thirteen years old and he acts everyone off the screen.

There's a healthy amount of laughs to be had here, but they're less than consistent with a few jokeless sections. The whole plot about Danny losing his girlfriend also doesn't feel plausible enough. Danny's miserable to the same degree before and after the split. Hey, at least they didn't end with Danny singing to her in front of hundreds of people. (Oh, wait. They did).

Verdict 7/10
A solid effort, better than most of it's contemporaries.