Review of Role Models (2008) by Chads. — 08 Nov 2008

Rudy(Chris Makepeace) can't fail. Under Tripper Harrison's tutelage(Bill Murray: Canadian role model), the gawky teen has a chance to be the star of his camp. If the unlikely North Star outpaces the favored Mohawk runner in the last event(the marathon) on the last day of the Olympiad, the nerds will win the clash of the warring summer camps.

Ivan Reitman's "Meatballs", like Bill Melendez and Phil Roman's "Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown" before it, succeeded because Rudy and "Chuck"(what Peppermint Patty would call Lucy's "blockhead") were likable underdogs in need of redemption.

And what better way to get it than in competitive sports? "Role Models" climaxes with a medieval role-playing tournament that somehow permeates a level of palpable excitement on par with anything from the "big game" scenario in countless inspirational sports movies, or Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Thanks to Gayle(Jane Lynch), "Role Models" exhibit sturdy wings, and not broken wings, when she assigns the right boy to the right mister; a preventive measure against "College"-like transgressions.

Augie Farks(Christopher Mintz-Plasse) gets Danny Donahue(Paul Rudd), a misanthropic energy drink peddler as his "big", who advises his charge to "lose the cape". Wheeler(Seann William Scott), on the other hand, if he was Augie's mentor, would physically remove the stigmatizing garment from his neck: no capes in this man's army.

A serious horndog, Wheeler(who mentors his "little" about the fine art of inconspicuous "booby"-watching), given the opportunity to mentor an older boy around Augie's age(Ronnie, played by Bobb'e J.

Thompson is about nine or ten), potentially could have upped the raunch factor of "Role Models", and degenerate into a sex romp about Wheeler helping the sword-wielding misfit lose his virginity(he takes Ronnie to a house party but the kid is too young).