Role Models

Friday, November 7, 2008

Okay, so when Kevin Smith made a movie that tried to cash-in on success of the Apatow/Rogen films (or, less cynically, made a film that emphasized the similarities his films already had with Apatow's), that made perfect sense to me. Their styles were already close enough. But when I saw that David Wain, best known for silly, borderline-surreal comedy like The State, Stella and Wet Hot Amaerican Summer was forging into Apatow territory, I was a little confused. This whole genre of dirty-minded guy comedies actually seemed pretty removed from Wain's brand of lunacy.

So color me surprised that not only was Role Models a formula comedy, but one of the funniest, most satisfying formula comedies I've seen in a good long while, funnier and more watchable than last week's Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I'm pretty sure even folks who hated Wain's other projects would like this one, mainly because it bears almost no resemblance to them. The weirdness is almost entirely gone (save for one joke I loved, involving a non-existant Wings song that multiple characters seem to all inexplicably know) and is replaced by a lot of foul-mouthed humor being spouted by a bunch of immature but lovable guys, more or less Knocked Up 2. It gets no points for originality, but when a comedy works, it works, and there's no use complaining about that other stuff.