Role Models (Universal Pictures)
Trash Talk Wrapped Around A Sweet Story
Many of you will be so turned off by the trash talk of the characters, both young and old, in Role Models that you wont be able to discover the sweetness at its center. Thats a shame because there is a good, funny story at the heart of this film but the language is so profane and so blue that a large segment of the potential audience will never watch it. It is particularly offensive to have minors spouting the words they do in this movie.
The film focuses on two thirty-something guys named Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott). They make a living selling a high energy drink to kids. They ride around in a wild looking car dubbed The Minotaur and appear at high schools telling kids to stay off drugs and go with the energy drink.
Danny is burned out and wants something more out of life than what he is doing. His negative attitude is affecting his friendships, his girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks), and his job. One day he explodes and he and Wheeler are arrested. They are sentenced to one hundred and fifty hours of community service.
They serve their sentence through a Big Brother program. Danny is assigned to work with Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and Wheeler draws Ronnie (Bobbe J Thompson). Augie is a nerdy kid who lives for the world of dungeons and dragons or medieval fighting. Danny thinks all this is just weird. Ronnie cusses up a storm and seems years older than he actually is.
The heart of the movie comes from how the two men are affected by these young boys. Each of the men puts aside his own ego to help the child to whom he is assigned. And the kids respond in kind.
Rudd is the star of this movie and he gives a full bodied performance as the burnt out, soured man whose life is not living up to expectations. Scott has the secondary role but he is loads of laughs as the irrepressible Wheeler. Mintz-Plasse found stardom in Superbad and shines again as the kid who is trying to break out of his shell.
Jane Lynch is crude and profane as Gayle Sweeney, the reformed drug addict and prostitute, who leads the organization where the two men are assigned. She says things a sailor would censor but she is fascinating to watch and to hear.
The film is rated R for profanity, sexual situations and nudity.
There is no way to get around the fact Role Models turns the air blue with its language. Still there is a sweet story that redeems it somewhat. This is what Zack and Miri Make a Porno tried to do and failed.
If you can get past the language you will find a movie worth watching. Rudd and Scott play off each other with good results and make the movie fun for the audience.
I scored Role Models an exemplary 6 out of 10.
