Role Models (2008)

The Alchemy of Comedy troupes seems to be working this year. It seems like the Apatow touch of style and actors are combining with others of the crude male variety. There was the excellent Zack and Miri, make a prono, which combines Seth Rogan and Kevin Smith. This time you have the mostly the Apatow crowd running with the guys from the The State,One Hot American Summer, and Reno 911 crew.

Maybe you are wondering why such a stupid looking movie such as Role Models is still showing. The reason is that it is pretty good. In the tradition of the Bad News Bears, The Mighty Ducks and any other films where reluctant males have to come to the rescue of eccentric kids where the movie metamorphosizes into a family movie, Roles Models does that too but better.

Why Better? It is better because usually in these movies you have really boring intro where the dude is down on his luck and basically crabby. Here you have Paul Rudd and Stiffler from American Pie acting like some overly sexed Martin and Lewis team. There is story about their friendship and Rudd and his girlfriends. There is a movie right here without the two kids who enter their lives by Plea Bargain.

The movie easily can be retooled into a sitcom a la the Simpsons. There are enough well developed secondary character that everyone is interesting. Most of them are from Apatow films. You got the doctor from Knocked Up, the nerdy kid from Drillbit Taylor, the newly wed from Forgetting Sarah Marshall and let's not forget Paul Rudd and McLovin'.

Oh the Story? Well our heros work for an energy drink company that tries to get kids off drug and on to energy drinks. Stiffler dresses up as a Minotar Beast for the kids. Rudd is depressed that his life has amounted to this, and his girlfriend can't stand him anymore. She leaves him.

Rudd, depressed, crashed the company car, and both are in it and charged. His ex-girlfriend, a lawyer, gets them a thousand hours of community service. They entered a help the children big brother program run by an ex-crack whore. Their little Bro's are a very angry little boy and McLovin'. McLovin is a Harry Potter looking Medieval re-creationist who might not have reality that far in his hands. As you can imagine, it doesn't go so well at the start, but the guys start to love it when they realize that these kids look up to them like gods. Just when they start to enjoy it is when the get kicked out. Later, somehow they all fight as a they all fight as a team in a Medieval re-creationist war dressed liked the members of KISS, which kinda lose in the end.

What makes this movie good is all the little characterizations and quirky interactions between them.