Review of Role Models (2008) by Nathan C — 20 Apr 2011

A funny movie! Since it's packed with low-brow hilarity and fine sweetness, this one flies with "sturdy wings".

Two co-workers for an energy drink company usually go to schools to persuade kids not to do drugs and to also promote their drink. But when one of the coworkers has a bad day, he causes an incident which gets them into 30 days of community service. They must watch over "littles": a hopelessly geeky teenager and a foul-mouthed young boy with some attitude.

What makes the movie provoke (a lot of) laughter is the black kid. The fantasy nerd, many will also enjoy. Meanwhile, the more experience actors (Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Jane Lynch) acquit themselves well. An interesting spin on the parent-child comedy of errors, with some jokes that hit the bullseye. What's surprisingly delightful is that there's no gay jokes directed at the coworkers. Then again, one of them is quite the womanizer. Goes by smoothly without a single drag.

Yeah, it's the same old formula, with the guys going through the predictable fall, but they learn something in the end, but so what? I might've enjoyed this better were it not for FX being a little retarded and going out on me (twice!) for a few minutes, missing some good parts: a bit of the camping trip, and the end of the epic fight scene.

It may sound stupid and incredibly homoerotic to some, but it's not like that at all. If you like the actors and/or the "bromantic comedy" genre, then Role Models is guaranteed to be a good time.