Role Models [DVD]

By Tosia Morris

Humour as crude as a womanizing trucker. Jane Lynch, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks and McLovin in its cast. Kids in need a right belting. The funniest laughs you’ll have all year. Hey, has to be Judd Apatow’s latest, right?

Wrong.

Director David Wain is a smart man. He’s pinched the funniest elements of Apatow’s films, not to mention his frequent players (though, to be fair, Wain has used Rudd before – in his little-seen “The Ten”), and crafted himself a nice little comedy. But rather than simply remake one of Apatow’s movies (be it “Knocked Up” or “Superbad” or the easily-emulated “The 40 Year-Old Virgin”), Wain’s surrounded the familiar with a storyline that’s fresh.

Rudd and Seann William Scott play a couple of unruly soft-drink salesmen who are sentenced to a community mentorship program after they trash the company truck. One ends up playing ‘big brother’ to a geeky ‘Harry Potter’-loving type (a suitably cast Christopher Mintz-Plasse, of “Superbad), and the other, a temporary guardian to a potty-mouthed fifth-grader (Bobb’e J. Thompson). Can these two actually do some good for the two kids whilst trying to avert jail?

An early contender for the funniest film of the year, and quite possibly the best comedy of the last twelve months, “Role Models” is an absolute bonanza of laughs. It’s packed with great performances (Rudd’s his usual likeable self, most impressive though is Scott – who, for once, isn’t channeling his inner-Stifler, he’s actually ‘real’, to an extent, here), as well as some bound-to-be quoted lines, very wicked laughs (the ‘hot dog’ gag is a bit much though!) and even, believe it or not, a syrupy sweet message or two.

Filmmakers should Xerox Judd more often.

Extras

Some great extras on here – a commentary by director David Wain, that’s as amusing as it is insightful, deleted scenes, bloopers, and featurettes.