"Fezzik, are there spoilers ahead?""If there are, we'll all be dead!"
(Perhaps that isn't the best warning. Then again, there were rocks ahead, and neither Fezzik nor Inigo died. Anyway, on to the review.)
Role Models is the kind of movie that I want to hate. I really do. Before it's five minutes in, you already know how the story will generally go. Loosey-goosey fun guy Wheeler (Seann William Scott) will grow up a bit. Bitchy pessimist Danny, who has managed to scare off even his girlfriend of seven years, will learn that there's more to life than hating the phrases people use or the way they use them. Foul-mouthed, absentee-fathered 11-year old Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson) will see that maybe all men aren't like his MIA bio-dad and that maybe all white folks aren't Ben Affleck. And Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) will find out that it's okay to be different so long as that's what makes you happy, regardless of what your idiot parents think.
All this and much more is telegraphed and should barely count as spoilers. The real spoiler lies in why I didn't end up hating Role Models, and actually came out liking it a lot. Sure, it has an "After School Special" plot and heartwarming moments galore. But it also has the key elements that made me love James Franco in Pineapple Express and gave a bit of redemption at the end of the lackluster Step Brothers: a commitment to absurdist comedy and unabashed love for losers.
It's easy to laugh at the pint-sized Thompson shouting various forms of the F-word at his "Big" (Scott) while calling Rudd "Reindeer Games" (again, the Affleck thing). And it's easy for us to laugh, at first glance, as the former McLovin goes through his dorky Dungeons & Dragons choreographed swordplay scene, complete with his own cheesy dialogue and soundtrack - heck, he might as well be re-creating the infamous Star Wars Kid YouTube video). It's another thing altogether, though, when the four principals show up to a live-action D&D-style battle in full KISS regalia, wigs, makeup and all, complete with Jane Lynch playing a character with no dignity (a specialty of hers). And, really, as good as the four leads are, it's the performances of such future FF-UNs as Ken Jeong (who's really led an interesting life; read more here) and Joe Lo Truglio, as well as Fletch favorite Matt Walsh (of Upright Citizens' Brigade fame) that really made the movie for me. Their dedication to their goofy roles, and the had-to-be-improvised touches that these vets brought to their mostly-one-dimensional roles turned what could have been a groaner of a movie into a bit of a riot.
No, it's not The 40 Year Old Virgin, and it's not Drillbit Taylor, which it unfortunately reminded me of at times - it sits somewhere in the middle, as a funny-but-mostly-unoriginal comedy that will likely be forgotten about until it's playing on an endless loop on basic cable, where it will pick up the get the love it deserves. Just like its two young stars.
Fletch's Film Rating:
"Darn tootin!"
