A great example of the Emotionally Stunted Men Grow A Heart sub-genre. Role Models staves off the January blues and puts a marker down as 2009’s laugh-out-loud comedy to beat.
Comment
01/09/09
Role Models (2008)
76
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:144
Fresh:110
Rotten:34
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Role Models is a frequently crude, always funny comedy with the cast providing solid work throughout.
Theatrical Release:09-01-2009
Synopsis: Director David Wain (WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER) capably mixes the saucy and the sentimental in the bawdy boys-to-men comedy ROLE MODELS. Stuck-in-a-rut Danny Donahue (Paul Rudd) and womanizing... [More]
Starring: Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jane Lynch
Director: David Wain
Reviews for Role Models
Top Critic‘Role Models’ isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, just polish it up a little. What emerges is a memorable slice of modern slapstick, with charm to spare and just a touch of soul.
01/09/09
Top CriticIt may be slight, it may be derivative, but this comedy for (if not quite about) adults is also deliriously funny.
01/09/09
Top CriticThe upbeat ending is inevitable but the script’s undercurrent of scalding sarcasm keeps it fresh.
01/09/09
Top CriticRole Models is exuberantly staged, fitfully funny and boasts a glorious supporting turn from Jane Lynch as the demagogic onetime addict.
01/09/09
Top CriticRole Models matures with age, becoming sweeter and less raucous as it goes on. Unfortunately, when it finds its heart, it loses its legs.
01/09/09
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01/09/09
Top CriticFor most of the film’s running time, Wain refuses to give in to mush or melodrama, preferring to prod hopelessly dysfunctional characters into uneasy duels, just to see who blinks first.
01/09/09
Top CriticIt's a slackly directed, grubbily photographed, utterly formulaic comedy.
01/09/09
While better than it should be, if you listen hard enough you can actually hear a barrel being scraped between the gags.
01/09/09
The wonderful Jane Lynch (40-Year-Old Virgin) steals each of her scenes as the charity project leader, a reformed cokehead singing from the right-on community care hymnsheet.
01/09/09
Neither Rudd nor Scott are naturally funny performers, and neither are nearly as effective as their two young charges. Lynch’s Sturdy Wings manager is easily the best bet for laughs.
01/09/09
Excellent anarchic fun with a twist of psychological truth.
01/08/09
Enjoyable comedy with likeable characters, strong comic performances and several big laughs, though it's also entirely predictable from start to finish.
01/08/09
Disarmingly likeable characters and a genuinely engaging story set this gross-out romp apart from other Apatow-style adult comedies
11/20/08
A big part of Role Models' success stems simply from the superb comic timing and expertly orchestrated interactions of its cast, who are for the most part very familiar with one another.
11/03/08
There's a constant sarcastic rapport between Rudd and Scott right from the get-go that makes the wholly expected plot developments easier to stomach.
12/17/09
Role Models is a film for the nerds, by the nerds. Lucky for Role Models, the rest of our culture is catching up and are invited along as well.
08/13/09
Bobb'e J. Thompson upstages the entire cast with his wit. Thompson was so crass -- I haven't seen a kid curse this much in a movie since Linda Blair in 'The Exorcist'!
07/03/09
... One of the best recent comedies not bearing the Apatow name.
05/15/09
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