Role Models

VERDICT:
8/10 Wizard McLovins

Surprisingly enough, this was actually the funniest movie of 2008. Was banking on Pineapple Express to take that title, but the proof is in the pudding, folks.

Role Models is about two energy drink spokesmen that are forced to mentor two kids as a means to fulfill their community service hours after destroying a school statue in a freak energy drink truck accident. Though initially resistant to their circumstances, the two guys gradually form a bond with the kids and everyone starts to change for the better. I think I'm...yup, I'm gonna cry.

The movie's directed by David Wain, who also did Wet Hot American Summer, a freakin' hilarious movie that still cracks me up every time I see it. Paul Rudd is pretty funny as the somber energy drink spokesman/role model, but I'm starting to feel like he's playing the same role in every movie at this point. Someone needs to cast him as a serial killer...or a crazy war veteran. Enough of this "mopey, but cute and endearing" shit.

Seann William Scott is hilarious as usual in a "grown-up Steve Stifler" kind of way. Newcomer Bobb'e J. Thompson (who spells their name like that?) is also damn funny as the foul-mouthed, boob-obsessed, asshole kid that Seann William Scott has to mentor. Only other thing I've seen him in is 30 Rock, but a funny kid all the same. Who doesn't like watching kids curse in movies?

But I probably should have known that McLovin would steal the show as the horribly strange and awkward mentee whose sole passion in life is playing a real-life version of Dungeons & Dragons (known to the elite members of this bizarre underworld as "LARPing"). His real name is Christopher Mintz-Plasse, but let's be honest, this kid could cure cancer and he'd still be known as Dr. McLovin.

That's pretty badass, actually. Sounds like a Motley Crue song.

I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this movie going into it, but I was really surprised when it didn't end up being another forgettable summer comedy. It has great characters, it's consistently hilarious throughout its run-time, it has a great final act, and the story is genuinely heartfelt and not corny in the least. Still vividly remember the ear-to-ear grin plastered on my face after I left the theater.

So if you still haven't seen Role Models, if you're still finding a way to fill that McLovin void in your life, and if you still think that Tropic Thunder is the funniest movie that came out last year, then you owe it to yourself to go and rent this movie.

We both know that Tropic Thunder could have been better.