Shawn's Role Models Review

2008 Movie #124 - Role Models

Wow...just wow. Just over a month since I've posted my last review on here. It's not that I haven't been seeing movies. Well actually I haven't really. But school is now done for the holidays and damn it it's time to catch up on this thing. I've come to accept that I obviously won't be able to see all the movies by the end of the year as I had originally planned, but I'm going to come very , very close I think. So let's kick off the comeback with a movie I saw on November 7th, same day as Zack and Miri actually.

This is one of those movies where you see the trailer, you hear the premise and all you can think is, meh. The cast was undeniably funny, but it just sounded like another generic comedy premise that would more than likely get way too sentimental in the end. Thankfully this did not turn out to be that comedy. It’s a hard R rated movie that is very funny and while it has a few more serious moments, not once does it take the turn into an over the top sappy mess.

A movie like this lives or dies with it’s cast and thankfully it has a very good one. Paul Rudd is always reliable to bring the funny, even when you can tell he doesn’t want to be there, like in Over Her Dead Body. Wow remember that movie? It’s also great to once again see Seann William Scott in a funny movie. I’ve always thought he was a funny actor but he just ends up in a lot of crap, except of course for The Rundown. That movie is all sorts of crazy awesome. The two of them work well together here and play off each other great.

The supporting cast is also good. Even McLovin shows that he may just have some staying power in him after that role. Either that or he’ll just become the next Jon Heder. My GOD I haven’t thought about him in forever. What in the hell is he even up to now? He doesn’t have a career anymore am I right? Weird.

This movie has a heavy focus on the activity of live action role playing (LARP) and while it does poke a little fun it and it’s dedicated followers, it never makes fun of it and by the end, had just about everyone convinced that it would be damn fun to take part in. So kudos to the movie on that one because I never even thought that would be possible.

This was a damn funny movie and I’m glad it got to keep it’s R rating since there were rumours for a while that it was going to be knocked down to a PG-13. I can’t imagine this movie with a lower rating so at least that proves that maybe, just maybe, Hollywood is learning something about what the movie going public actually wants.

****/5