DVD Reviews

Role Models – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 18, 2009, 16:28 GMT

Danny and wheeler two salesmen who trash a company truck on an energy drink-fueled bender. Upon their arrest the court gives them a choice: do hard time or spend 150 hours with a mentorship program. ...more

If you’re in need of a role model and want to live life as a slacker then these two guys are for you.

Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott) are salesmen for an energy drink called Minotaur. Wheeler is a skirt chasing stoner that loves his job and Danny despises the job and finds his relationship with his girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks), an attorney, coming to an end because of his bad attitude.

The duo is giving a series of their presentations at the local high school when their gaudy Minotaur monster truck is being towed. They try and stop the truck from being towed and end up causing lots of chaos. This gets them arrested and has Beth coming to their defense.

The judge sentences them to 30 days in jail for all the damage and offenses. Beth is able to strike a deal resulting in them having 150 hours of community service at Gayle Sweeney’s (Jane Lynch) mentoring program called Sturdy Wings. Wheeler is assigned to mentor Ronnie Shields (Bobb’e J. Thompson), a streetwise kid obsessed with boobs (the female kind not our two heroes) who has had numerous “Bigs” (as in big brothers).

Danny is assigned to Augie Farks (Christopher “McLovin” Mintz-Plasse), a nerd obsessed with a medieval role-playing game called LAIRE. At first the two feel they don’t have much in common with their young charges, but as time goes on they find that they have much to teach them if they both can stay out of trouble… and jail.

I’ve been saying this a lot lately and probably won’t be giving up babbling it anytime soon as Hollywood appears to be out to remake every film that has made a dime, but Role Models is nothing new. I was struck at how predictable it is.

You just know that Danny and Wheeler will come to embrace the young minds they’re attempting to mold. There are going to be some comic misunderstandings, but they’ll all have a group hug before “The End” pops up on the screen. There are some pretty funny bits during the course of the film, but its all brain candy.

Don’t expect to be filled up by it. You get the R-rated theatrical cut (99 minutes) and an unrated version (102 minutes). Nothing new, but there are some laughs as the film falls into line behind Superbad and other type comedies.

Role Models is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special feature include a commentary by director David Wain on the R-rated version. Next are 24 minutes of deleted scenes, 4 minutes of bloopers, 7 minutes of on set footage, a 9 minute bit on the fantasy game LAIRE, and 8 minutes of ad libs. There are also previews for other Universal DVDs.

Role Models probably isn’t going to earn points for originality but it does entertain. It falls into the groove established by other current comedies. Just turn off your brain, as your role model would do, and groove out to this humorous look at mentoring. Don’t BS a BSer and don’t have cocaine for breakfast, lunch and dinner and you’ll be okay.