The brand of humor found in “Role Models” is the kind that combines cynicism with cheerfulness. Paul Rudd plays a character so sour that it’s almost a joy for him to get into verbal disputes. Consider the way he argues with a barista about the different coffee cup sizes, pointing out the stupidity in replacing “large” with “venti” because “venti” is Italian for “twenty.” Why even use words like “tall” and “grande” when you can use the more common “small” and “medium?” He argues so poetically, it seems he actually looks forward to venting this kind of frustration every time he walks into a coffee shop. He’s like Holden in “The Catcher in the Rye”; the thing he does best in life is observe the defects of everything around him and then complain about them with great eloquence and humor.
Rudd’s character is Danny, a sad 35-year-old working as a spokesman for the Minotaur energy drink. Danny has had enough of his job, but his partner Wheeler (Seann William Scott) loves the work. They drive around to different schools to speak to kids about the evils of addictive drugs and instead lure kids into sugary energy drinks addictions.
One day, Danny has had enough and drives the Minotaur truck onto a school statue of a horse. To avoid jail, the partners agree to 30 days of community service and sign up to be big buddies to troubled youth. Their mentees come with their own funny quirks, of course. Ronnie is an off-the-wall potty mouth, and Augie dresses like he’s training for a big Quidditch match against Slytherin.
The characters are naturally funny and the only existing plot is to put them all together to generate comedy. As iron sharpens iron, these characters grate on each other’s nerves, which usually results in bad sitcom humor. This plotline could easily have generated a PG friendly horror movie like “Are We There Yet?,” but in “Role Models,” the familiar situations are genuinely funny because the filmmakers approach the material in a “take no prisoners” kind of way. It’s unapologetically crude and earns its R rating. But it is also quick-witted and almost poetic in its worldview observations through the minds of immature boys caught in a state of arrested development.
“Role Models” was made by members of the Judd Apatow crowd, but Apatow himself is missing from the credits. It contains the same raunchy humor that made “Knocked Up” and “The Forty-Year Old Virgin” famous, but without the same sweetness those movies did. It’s more interested in watching four guys slap each other repeatedly in a car rather than having them talk about their insecurities. And it works on that level. These four are good slappers.
“Role Models” is rated R for crude and sexual content, strong language and nudity.
