Role Models

Plot synopsis:
Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott) are two energy drink salesmen who promote a drink called "Minotaur" to school children, and encourage kids to stay off drugs. Wheeler loves the job, but Danny hates it, viewing it as a pointless, dead-end career. Danny's depression results in the collapse of his relationship with his girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks), after he impulsively proposes to her. After a presentation at an elementary school, the duo find their Minotaur truck being towed, as they were parked in a no-parking zone. After an argument with the tow truck driver, Danny attempts to "drive" their truck free of the tow truck, damaging the tow truck, nearly running over a security guard (Louis C.K.) and crashing into a statue. Both men are arrested and charged with assault and disorderly conduct.
Beth strikes a deal with the judge in which they have to log 150 hours of community service over the next 30 days, in lieu of 30 days in jail. They are to complete their service with Sturdy Wings, a big brother-big sister program led by Gayle Sweeny (Jane Lynch), a recovering addict. Gayle is aware of their court mandate and warns them that if they fail to meet her requirements they will be sent to prison. Wheeler is paired up with Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson), a foul-mouthed streetwise miscreant obsessed with breasts, who has driven away all the other "Bigs" he has been paired with. Danny is assigned Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a nerdy teenager obsessed with medieval live action role-playing games.
Danny is unable to find common ground with Augie while Ronnie takes a disliking to Wheeler. Danny considers choosing the jail sentence, but Wheeler insists that if they go to jail, they will get raped. They gradually bond with their "littles". Ronnie and Wheeler share the experience of having been abandoned by their fathers while Danny learns about Augie's medieval fantasy realm. Ronnie takes an interest in Wheeler's favourite group, Kiss, and discovers that Wheeler shares his obsession with breasts, which Wheeler teaches him to control. Danny and Augie bond when they realize that they are both involved in the Sturdy Wings program against their will. Danny joins Augie's live action role playing game, "LAIRE" (Live Action Interactive Role-playing Explorers) and attempts to reconcile with Beth, but to no avail (Beth must commit to the break-up, stating that it is for the best).
However, their good luck is short-lived. When Augie manages to sneak up on the King of LAIRE, Argotron (Ken Jeong), the King lies and tells everyone that he killed Augie. Danny, defending Augie, confronts and then pushes the King, and gets himself and Augie banned from LAIRE forever. Later, Danny insults Augie's mother and stepfather for refusing to support Augie's hobby, earning their hatred. As soon as Augie's parents kick Danny out of their house, Danny retorts, "I'd be psyched if he were my kid." Meanwhile, Wheeler takes Ronnie to a party and leaves him unsupervised, resulting in Ronnie walking home alone and a series of angry messages from Ronnie's mother, Karen, on Wheeler's cell-phone. Ronnie and Augie's parents ask Sturdy Wings for new mentors, and Danny and Wheeler are expelled from the program, thus failing to complete their community service. Beth says that she will defend Danny and Wheeler in court, but cannot make any promises, as they will eventually be sent to jail. Danny and Wheeler argue and go their separate ways.
Danny convinces King Argotron to allow himself and Augie to fight that afternoon in the much-awaited Battle Royale. Wheeler gets permission from Karen to hang out with Ronnie after he gets out of jail, and earns Ronnie's forgiveness. However, the King secretly warns the other members of Augie's LAIRE "country" of Xanthia that allowing Augie to fight with them will lead to severe retribution in the game. They call Augie to tell him he's too much of a liability and he has nowhere to turn. To form a new LAIRE country, Danny and Augie need four members and matching costumes. Danny asks Wheeler and Ronnie to join them. They arrive with Wheeler's Kiss costumes and a Kiss-themed Minotaur truck, naming their new country "Kiss-My-Anthia". After a betrayal by his former Xanthian allies, Augie finally duels with the king, defeating him. A hidden player, Sarah (Allie Stamler), who goes by Esplen in LAIRE, then attacks and defeats Augie; she is crowned the new queen and chooses Augie as her king-consort. Augie's parents forgive Danny.
Impressed with having seen that Wheeler and Danny care for the children, Gayle clears their names with the judge. Danny serenades Beth with a rendition of the Kiss song "Beth" and they happily reconcile.

Tags: pornographic, fantasy, comedy, romantic, entertaining, storytelling

Review:
After seeing the trailer for Role Models, I thought it looked like a funny movie, but I wasn't expecting much, I was thinking they might have just shown the great parts in the trailer and that would be it.
But I took the opportunity and saw Role Models the other day and I have to say this is completely opposite from what I was expecting, first off I was worried that there was going to be a lot of gross humor and the kids might be more annoying than funny, but it turn out that this was one of the funniest movies I have seen this year.
He and Paul Rudd both worked so well together and were terrific on screen, this was the last duo on Earth that I expected such great laughs from.Wheeler and Danny both work for an energy drink company, but after a very hard day for Danny he crashes their company truck on school property, but his ex-girlfriend, Beth, who is a lawyer is able to get them just 150 hours community service with two kids, one is a total dungeons and dragons nerd and the other is just a pain in the butt.
You know how the story goes, Danny learns how to be happy and Wheeler finally grows up into a more father figure role.Now the story is something we have seen a million times before, but it's still a great comedy.
Role Models - Two energy drink spokesmen, Wheeler and Danny (Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd) get in trouble with the law after Danny has a break-up with his girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks who is in everything these days).
For their service, the two men work at a program called Sturdy Wings that is designed to pair kids with adult role models.Personally I avoided it until now because it just sounded like another lame American bawdy comedy about two slacker dudes who create chaos and then grow up by the end credits.
Paul Rudd is perfect as the miserable Danny and Sean William Scott is perfectly cast as the free-living, but unfortunate Wheeler.The film manages to tread that fine line between cliché ridden schmaltz (Like 27 dresses) and refreshingly enjoyable comedies (Like Something About Mary) with a deft touch, the direction is sure footed and manages to deliver a surprise ending that I would never have guessed from how it began.A laugh out loud comedy that exceeds expectations..
Role Models isn't the sort of movie you'd expect to be the exception, but nonetheless delivers quality film-making, quality writing and acting, and plenty of life-lessons as well as raunchy humor to keep you laughing throughout.
The transition is very slow and gradually actually improves the film as it rolls on.Role Models follows two slackers, a bitter one (Rudd) and a rowdy, horny freebird (William Scott) being forced to community service after a mishap outside a school.
Last but not least we must applaud Christopher Mintz-Plasse as he delivers another grand geeky performance that mixes humor with heart.What separates incredible rated-R comedies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and There's Something About Mary from stinkers like Scary Movie 2, Superbad, and My Best Friend's Girl is how much raunchy material is presented and its timing.
The epic finale is long, but ludicrous, and wraps up the story very nicely.Bottom Line: It usually isn't my nature to give a film with dozens of cleavage jokes a high score (especially with my hate affair with Dane Cook), but Role Models is surprisingly cute, surprisingly sweet, and delightfully hilarious and touching.
Miraculously enough though the threadbare premise is held together by enough jokes and amusing moments to make the thing worthwhile, largely due to the continued comedic stylings of one Paul Rudd, and the strength of the various supporting bit parts on display throughout.When allotted their respective 'littles' (Danny and Wheeler are 'bigs') by Sturdy Wings boss and recovering alcoholic Sweeney (Jane Lynch) we immediately see where this is going.Danny considers himself 'normal', but in reality he is so concerned with not being deemed 'uncool' that his disdain for cliché and obvious statements leaves everyone else bored by his constant judgment.
Of course he is allocated troubled young 8ish Ronnie, a profane little sh*t-stirrer who wants nothing more than to not have to deal with adults.Each kid has parental issues – but ones that don't kill the potential laughs – no abuse here, and the guys must get through to the children in their own way, and sucks; maybe learn a little about themselves on the way What develops is a rom-com with all the associated hijinks, temporary fall-outs and hitches, only between an adult male and a kid/youth, but that's not where the laughs are born.Role Models works best in the smaller roles, the now renowned Ken Jeong keeps his pants on this time and plays the King of the role playing game L.A.I.R.E., surrounded by his toadying minions and remaining in character even away from the game in his kingdom at the local cafe.
Jane Lynch is a little OTT with the attempted mind games as the Sturdy Wings boss, but she also gets a few of the best lines in the flick, and there are numerous other bit roles – each with a couple jokes – filled by character actors that'll have you remembering them from other bit roles in other flicks.The jokes are thrown about quick and fast, and while some don't work enough do to make Role Models a lot like I Love You, Man and Knocked Up, lightweight and amusing enough to justify your time, with occasional genuine humour (and unexpected nudity!).Final Rating – 6 / 10.
The capsule summary of "Role Models" on Xfinity TV is, "Forced to join a mentorship program, two irresponsible men (Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd) must help a pair of impressionable boys navigate the troubled waters of youth." That description sounds like a smarmy physical comedy derivative with cheap scatological bits.
Jane Lynch is hilarious as the head of the community service center, "ideal" role model Gary is perfect for making us see these two morons in a better light, and Ken Jeong is perfect as the King of the Realm (watch the movie for full understanding).
Along their assignment, Danny and Wheeler feel sometimes that it would be better off going to jail; but in the end, they feel happier with their lives.The overrated "Role Models" is a brainless film that certainly makes laugh with the stupidities of Danny, Wheeler, Augie, Ronnie and Sweeny.
But after seeing this crap, I got the idea he wasn't putting in any effort, along with Paul Rudd who was "Mike" in Friends, whom I thought was hilarious in the show.Rudd basically plays a bit of a whiner, which I thought would have been funny if the movie had progressed properly with a bit of direction with his complaints, but no,he just remains the same throughout, in all honesty, he just wasn't funny at all, which was disappointing because I actually like the actor which was one of the main reasons for going to see this.
Along with a lot of cursing, (mostly from the black kid, which was all he did) and the pointless nudity scenes with William Scott(were they trying to add American pie scenes into this to make it funny?), this movie could have been aimed towards kids.Like I said, a few laughs, not many.
It wasn't the kind of movie like Superbad or Pineapple Express where super hilarious but not much of a story, but it was almost there in funniness (I couldn't think of any other word to put here and no, 'comedy' would not have worked).
Role ModelsDirected by David Wain.Starring Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott and Elizabeth Banks.Apparently no longer content with playing second fiddle to Seth Rogen and Steve Carell, Paul Rudd steps firmly into the limelight for "Role Models." Rudd's big break has been long overdue; the actor is most popular for peppering already funny movies with his supporting roles.
You have Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott, as two guys forced into community service work as Big Brothers or else face jail time.
There's no doubt about it, David Wain's movie is a lot more amusing than your average farcical comedy fare, and it has a sweet story too, but it too often falls on its face because of a sense of ill-focused material; Role Models is entertaining stuff sure, but an incoherency in tone prevents the film from ever taking off and connecting with its audience.As mentioned above, the script here (penned by a list of writers I won't even begin to name check) follows a rather standard three act curve.
Teaming up with Paul Rudd to write the screenplay, Wain gathered an impressive cast for this film, featuring Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Christopher Mintz- Plasse (McLovin from "Superbad"), a presumably unknown but very solid child actor in Bobb'e J.
I've always enjoyed Paul Rudd, and he's terrific here as well, Seann William Scott can be either hilarious or annoying, but he's genuinely good here, Elizabeth Banks is growing into a fine actress, and just a week after her really great turn in "Zack and Miri Make a Porno", she has a (much smaller) but still worthy role in "Role Models" as Rudd's estranged girlfriend.
Judd Apatow and Kevin Smiths movies create a more suitable marriage of sentimental sweetness and raunchy gags (and yes, Kevin Smith was doing the sentimental thing well before "Zack and Miri Make a Porno", regardless of what cynics might say) because they are generally dialogue-driven, character-based comedies, but the issue with "Role Models" is that it tries to be driven by sight gags as much as by dialogue, and ends up falling flat when it goes for the sugary sweetness.
Beth gets them community service and they become big brothers to Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) who's obsessed with Live-Action-Interactive-Role playing-Explorers (basically LARP) and foul-mouthed Ronnie (Bobb'e J.
Here below is why I think this film is a good one.The story as said is funny yet warm and although is mostly humour of which can be sometimes very crude(mostly from Seann William Scott), it is still warm also and the ending as you may see is really quite happy and tender.
It is fast comedy and things start straight away as you will see, the story is very simple but it works well enough anyway and you should laugh if at least not once, just go with the flow and have fun is all you need to like it, trust me it can be good.Paul Rudd in his ever comedic role is good in the main role with previously mentioned William Scott providing comedic cover in the supporting if not not shared main role.
One point when the directing of David Wain comes in is when they play this pretend fight game and the entire shot must have been very difficult to direct as so much goes on, the scene itself is hilarious by the way, and+ the scene has some great costumes as does many parts of the film so look out for them.It isn't the most solid comedy and not every joke is funny to be fair, most are I think but when they are not funny they are sometime in between funny jokes and so you laugh and then think "what was that" in two seconds.
The acting isn't awesome and although Paul Rudd is experienced at this with such showings in Anchorman, he is the best comedic performer by far, William Scott is funny too though.I think most people who enjoy slightly crude humour will enjoy this and some people will have big laughs.
So the movie is about these two guys Danny and Wheeler who are sentenced to community service and what they have to do is be big brothers to these two kids that they cannot stand.The strong points in the movie are the sarcastic lines that Paul Rudd gives and the antics Bobb'e J.
What I do enjoy is that they don't hold over Paul Rudd romance side plot too much in the story they stick by the guys trying to get along with these kids.This is directed by David Wain he hasn't directed notable stuff but he has directed episodes of Children's Hospitol, which is a pretty funny show.Overall this is a funny comedy not the best but worth a watch I say a solid rental..
Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott = Great Role Models.
The story follows Danny (Rudd) and Wheeler (Scott) as two representatives for an energy drink company who are placed into community service to avoid jail time.
Their interactions with the kids; one a foul mouthed 8 year old, the other an obsessed role-player of a D&D-like game, is also spot-on.What makes the films and jokes work - it has heart.
Watch this if you want some thick guys' humor for a night with a couple of buds or whatever, it's manufactured fun for you so it can't be a disaster as long as you're totally permeable.It's not as good as often promoted, lots of the film relies on two-way semantic humor, the typical sexual innuendo type, the usual despondency of the modern working man tired of his life and generally cynical, there's a bit of social commentary in the mix what with parenthood and all...It's okay, but as a more structure-oriented critique, as central to the whole plot as it is surely this film spends too much time in the geeky role-playing realm there.
As for a review of the actual movie, Role Models is a comedy that's a bit more palatable to female tastes than the average film of this kind.
"Role Models" is from a time long ago in a galaxy far away where Seann William Scott had equal billing and stature with Paul Rudd and both could be ably supported by lesser knowns like Elizabeth Banks, Jane Lynch, and Ken Jeong (in short, well before "Ant-Man," "Pitch Perfect," "Glee," and "The Hangover").
Role Models is a good movie with an enjoyable storyline and a great comedic cast.I did enjoy the movie, it had plenty of very funny scenes, but plenty of scenes that wern't do funny as well.I was honestly disappointed by this movie ,the cast was very promising, especially Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott,two hilarious actors together in what seemed like such a great set up, but it really just didn't live up to my expectations.Seann William Scott's character was definitely my favourite and I also really liked and Bobb'e J.Thompson's character was also one of the funniest.There are certainly several funny moments but also some not so funny moments,however , I would recommend Role Models to anyone looking for a fun comedy.Two irresponsible salesmen are priced to act as unlikely role models for two wayward kids..
Role Models, sort of a second grade Apatow or McKay production, is distressing from end to end.The premise augured a good dose of humour though, but it is the complete opposite that occurred and one realizes really quickly the intergalactic void that is this movie.The dialogues are of a rarely achieved dreadfulness, and the scenes are for the most part really bad, badly filmed, badly edited, and flow together in a total disinterest, not to mention the cliché psychology and moral.Almost all the gags fall flat and can't manage to raise the already abyssal level of a script that goes nowhere.William Scott and Rudd also weigh down the movie, not helped by their bland and uninteresting characters.
Luckily, the director, David Wain, has his own way of doing things, not too dissimilar to Apatow's bunch, which is to fill in these plot points with fantastic comic actors and enough improvisation to impress the Upright Citizens convention.So, in short, the movie is very funny, sometimes so much so that you'll laugh for several seconds just about what you just laughed at (the Marvin Hamlisch line in this instance was one of those, plus anything having to do with KISS), and features Paul Rudd in another good disaffected-character turn and Seann William Scott's funniest in so long as I can remember.
I have seen and loved many comedies, especially movies compatible to Role Models, but Role Models is just as funny as Superbad, if not funnier.Seann William Scott is basically Stifler, and Paul Rudd is all his characters in previous movies (starting with Anchorman) combined.
Thompson also threw in great roles as the "little's" to Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, respectively.It's hard to say why this movie is so funny because there's no reason for it: it just is.
That didn't fell like it belonged in a movie that is meant to be a crude adult comedy.However despite the negatives Role Models was still funny and was worth seeing.
'Role Models' is one of those movies that makes you want to see it really bad after you see the trailer.So let me tell you that the anticipation is certainly worth it.This is a funny,raunchy,and entertaining comedy that beats other comedies like 'Knocked Up,'Superbad',and 'The 40-Year Old Virgin.'The plot is simple: 2 friends trying to sell an energy drink cause an accident that leads them to community service,where they have to take care of two adolescents,one who lives in a fantasy world,and the other is a foul mouthed brat who loves to pull pranks.Now that you know the plot,you should know that this is a very funny and fun-to-watch movie.Thank you Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott..
This movie was thus a great surprise, as it is absolutely hilarious.The four main characters (Rudd, Scott, Plasse and Thompson) are way too good in this movie, and a lot of the supporting actors, especially Jane Lynch, are on as well.
Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott are the two leads this time, and they are incredibly funny together, whilst Superbad's Christopher Mintz-Plasse, newcomer Bobb'e J.
Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd show a great on-screen chemistry in this movie which really makes it worth watching.