REVIEW: Comedy's formula works to its advantage

"Role Models" is like a comfortable, old sweater. It may be somewhat threadbare and out of fashion, but you wear it because it's familiar and snug and makes you feel cozy.

Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott play Danny and Wheeler, two losers who spend their days hawking energy drinks to school children in the guise of an anti-drug campaign. It's the sort of mindless work either man could do in his sleep, which suits Wheeler just fine.

Not having to engage his brain at work allows it to focus on other things, such as bedding women.

Danny, on the other hand, is a seething maelstrom of disillusionment. Feeling he's wasting his life, Danny impulsively proposes to his longtime girlfriend, Beth (Elizabeth Banks - yes, the same Banks who is starring in "W." and "Zack and Miri Make a Porno"), who promptly kicks the sad sack to the curb. Danny's day goes from bad to worse when he involves Wheeler in a traffic altercation that leaves the two men facing 150 hours of community service.

Danny and Wheeler find themselves at Sturdy Wings, a sort of Big Brother mentorship program headed by ex-con Gayle Sweeney (Jane Lynch) - a passive/aggressive personality as unstable as any element found in nature - where they are assigned the two kids nobody else can stand. Party animal Wheeler gets Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson), a 10-year-old with a despicable temper and an even more despicable mouth.

The acerbic Danny is paired with Augie ("Superbad's" Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a teenager who spends every waking moment participating in a live-action fantasy role-playing game, patterned after the Society for Creative Anachronism. We are hardly surprised, then, when Danny repeats, as often as anyone will listen, "I'd rather be in prison."

"Role Models" doesn't try to reinvent the formulaic wheel. It's not a great mystery figuring out where the plot is headed.

After a tumultuous foray in which everything that could go wrong does, everyone is shocked to discover that genuine bonding has taken place. That is until the big brothers come within an inch of destroying all the goodwill they've accrued and have to prove to their boys at last that friendship is more important than grown-up egocentricity.

"Role Models" is a schizophrenic script, half urbane wit and half juvenile inanity. The film's formulaic makeup actually works to its advantage.

The structure is secure and time-tested; the jokes hammered into place aim for wide, broad appeal - mostly garnering laughs as Danny and Wheeler win over their little brothers with the most age-inappropriate methods imaginable.

Much of the film's comedy relies on the shock value associated with children saying and doing things that would make most adults blush. While "Role Model's" humor is unquestionably more boorish than droll, the potty mouth script is as tame as anything overheard in a convent compared with last week's "Zack and Miri."

The cast is strong. Though Rudd and Scott approach funny from very divergent directions, they play off of each other surprisingly well. If there is any complaint, it is that Danny's walking corpse is somewhat difficult to like. The only saving grace is Rudd, whose famous deadpan delivery makes him shine even amidst mediocre fare like this.

Both boys perform well, but poor Banks is given nothing funny to say or do. That's OK - Lynch more than makes up for her delinquency, easily walking away with each and every scene she's in.

DETAILS
Role Models

Cast: Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jane Lynch, Elizabeth Banks
Director: David Wain
Playing at: Chapel Hills, Cinemark, Hollywood, Tinseltown, Carmike
Rated: R (for language, adult situations, nudity)
Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

 Grade: B