From "Zach and Miri Make a Porno" to "High School Musical 3: Senior Year," there seems to be a lot of coming-of-age movies playing this fall. Though they all span different ages on the 18 to 39 range and have individual takes on the genre, they boil down to basically the same struggles, general plot points and quirky romantic involvements, which can get boring. But "Role Models" takes the conventions of the genre and somewhat reinvents them in a way that is both original and hysterical.
After crashing a Minotaur car into a statue of a horse, energy drink promotional speaker Danny Donahue (Paul Rudd) and his Minotaur mascot sidekick Wheeler (Seann William Scott) get sentenced to 150 hours of community service. Working off their time at a foundation named Sturdy Wings, the two are given the task they don't think they can handle: taking care of kids.
Seann William Scott is enjoyable as always playing a smooth and carefree party guy as if he invented the character. Paired with the wild and foul-mouthed fatherless tyke Ronnie Shields (Bobb'e J. Thompson), Scott does a good job of transforming his character from a misplaced college student to a cool role model one might look up to.
On the other hand, Paul Rudd accurately plays a misanthropic pessimist, who, after being dumped by his long-time girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks), falls into a slump of depression. When assigned to look after the quintessential teenage nerd Augie Farks (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Rudd transforms himself and finds something to care about.
What makes this movie so much fun to watch is the way it uses imagination and innovation be remains grounded in reality. For instance, Augie's nerdy hobby is this real life medieval battle game where people dress up in costumes and fight with Styrofoam swords. This dorky adventure world runs the gamut of young children to adults, who get together once a week and attack each other in a park.
Its plausibility is what makes it so enjoyable. The humor is very realistic, but it still manages to be entertaining and novel. Yeah, there are no porn jokes or annoyingly catchy songs, but it's a great movie that doesn't need those things to make it worth watching.
