Doubleback: ROLE MODELS

Ya gotta love low expectations – sometimes they can allow you to enjoy something a whole lot more. Such was the case with ROLE MODELS. I really didn’t think it was gonna be my cup of tea, but found myself pleasantly surprised with how often it made me laugh.

While I’m well past tired of Sean William Scott, and slightly tired of Paul Rudd (who seems to show up in every funny movie lately), both of them got to deliver lives that landed beautifully. I think more of the credit has to go to the kids (Bobb’e J Thompson and Christopher Mitz-Plasse), who in very different ways give Scott & Rudd a real chance to shine.

They play kids who are part of a Big Brother-esque mentoring program, and each one comes in with their own adolescent baggage. Thompson is a thick-skinned brat who seems angry at the world. In my eyes he earned points by making Ben Affleck jokes in Rudd’s direction (“You white, so you Ben Affleck”). Mitz-Plasse is a geek in the classic sense, a D&D geek to be specific. Rudd doesn’t have the first clue how to relate to him. What he eventually understands though(and tries to point out to the kid’s parents) is that embracing your geekiness isn’t something to be ashamed of, as long as it makes you happy.

The plot does go in a rather predictable direction, but at the very least it goes in a harmless and non-insulting direction while providing laughs along the way. And really, when it comes to comedy, that’s the point isn’t it? Once in a while something can come along and change the game, but to succeed as a comedy you only need to reach the bar and not smack the audience in the head on your way up.