Role Models

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Movie Details

• Genre: Comedy
• Release Date: 2008-11-07 Nationwide
• Running Time: 95 min.
• Director: David Wain
• Cast: Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jane Lynch, Bobb'e J.Thompson, Elizabeth Banks
• Producer: Mary Parent, Scott Stuber, Luke Greenfield
• Writer: David Wain, Paul Rudd, Ken Marino, Tim Dowling, W. Blake Herron
• Distributor: Universal Pictures
• Official Site: Role Models Official Site

In every way, this is just another formulaic romp about two selfish slackers getting their priorities rearranged by a couple of kids—instead of breaking new ground, it polishes it with sandpaper. As reps for an energy-drink company, Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott are going nowhere—except to the schools where they pitch their product’s buzz as an acceptable substitute for illegal drugs. Wheeler (Scott) loves the gig, despite the Minotaur costume in which he does his five shows daily for smart-ass kids who wonder if he got the cow outfit at the gay zoo. Then company suit and spokesman Danny (Rudd) chooses the occasion of his break-up with longtime girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks, in what amounts to little more than extended cameo) to sabotage their slacker gigs by running their monster truck up a school’s statuary. For that crime of stupidity (among others), Wheeler and Danny are offered a choice: go to jail for a month or mentor two boys (Bobb’e J. Thompson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) in a Big Brothers-type organization called Sturdy Wings, run by a rather unsteady former coke whore played by Jane Lynch. The inevitable transpires: Men who’d behaved like boys begin acting their age, and boys who’d been left to fend for themselves stop acting out. It’s been the plot of every other Adam Sandler movie—potty humor gets a hug. But Wain, Marino and Rudd pull it off because theirs is a funnier, brainier, bawdier brand of feel-good . . . and because you can never go wrong with a climactic, foam-padded sword fight set to KISS.