I feel a little bad that I haven't been able to contribute to the boards much lately. My last year of film school has been insanely busy and I've hit something of a creative rut that I've been to preoccupied to work out. Nevertheless, I figured I'd post a real movie review in a real movie review thread.

I caught a sneak preview of Role Models last night and felt like reviewing a movie people here will most likely want to see, for a change. It doesn't come out for another month or so but I figured I'd give my thoughts just the same.

Despite what the trailer might have you believe, Judd Apatow has nothing to do with this movie. The amount of Apatow alumni acting in the movie leads me to believe that the producers are trying to cash in on his success. Nevertheless, Role Models was better than I expected. This could probably be attributed to Paul Ruud (playing one of the lead roles as Danny) cowriting the script; Ruud improvised a lot in 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up.

Anyway, Role Models is about two energy drink salesmen, Danny (Paul Ruud) and Wheeler (Sean William Scott), who end up drinking a little too much of their "Minotaur" and crashing their truck into a school statue. Danny's ex-girlfriend is a lawyer who is able to pull some strings to keep them out of prison. Unfortunately, they're forced to do community service at Sturdy Wings, a Big Brothers, Big Sisters type volunteer program. Long story short, terrible role models get paired up with oddball kids (Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Bobb'e J. Thompson) - hilarity ensues.

While Role Models isn't an Apatow comedy, it's got a lot of his style in it. It's character and dialogue driven and, of course, dirty. The majority of the gags involve sex and gay jokes but there's a lot of variety in the humor as well, with topics ranging from Starbucks to fantasy LOTR-esque role playing. All of it's got a distinct style though and is pretty sharp, generally.

The humor is great as is but the actors make it even better. Paul Ruud is excellent as the bitter, hateful douchebag and Sean William Scott is actually more than tolerable, given the script (I'm not much of a fan of his). They both compliment each other great. They also compliment the kids they're paired up with. Christopher Mintz-Plasse pretty much reprises his role as the almighty McLovin with his character, Augie, but he's is a little more developed this time around. He's likely to get typecast but he's still amazing at the whole "nerd-who-gets-lucky" schtick. He and Danny make a good team.

Bobb'e J. Thompson is also awesome as a foul-mouthed -10 year old. He really hams it up and probably got the most laughs out of everyone in the movie. He's a good counter for Sean William Scott and it's fun to watch them together.

Also hilarious performances by Jane Lynch (40 Year Old Virgin), Ken Jeong (Knocked Up), and Joe Lo Truglio (Superbad).

The ending is kinda silly and overblown but most comedies of this type are the same way. Overall, great script, great performances, great laughs. Awesome movie. Check it out when it opens.