Crass jokes, crackling dialogue make 'Role Model' roll

At first glance, "Role Models" looks like just another graduate from the Judd Apatow School of Crass Comedy with Quirky Characters We Can Care About.

This one's a little bit different. It's funnier and much warmer than Kevin Smith's Apatowian comedy "Zack and Miri Make a Porno."

"Role Models" comes from director David Wain, whose previous movies "The Ten" and "Wet Hot American Summer" have achieved quasi-cult stature, despite low box office appeal. Wain has unabashedly gone mainstream here with a seemingly conventional comedy that packs a satisfying ending for all the Joe Popcorns out there.

More than that, all the filmmaking elements - with the exception of the drab, made-for-TV visuals - fall into place to create a crackling, delayed coming-of-age comedy with keenly honed characters armed with cleverly constructed, albeit blunt and naughty dialogue.

Danny (Paul Rudd) and his pal Wheeler (Seann William Scott) are stuck in jobs requiring them to run around Los Angeles high schools promoting an energy drink called Minotaur. Wheeler dresses as the Minotaur mascot while Danny pitches the drink.

For the arrested adolescent Wheeler, it's a dream job that doesn't cut into his flagrant womanizing. For the increasingly disgruntled Danny, it's a death sentence. "I'm 35 and I have no life!" he says.

He also has no fiancee after his longtime attorney girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks, hitting a seasonal trifecta with "W.," "Zack and Miri" and this film) breaks up with the increasingly sour and acidic guy.

During a public snit-fit, Danny and Wheeler damage a bunch of stuff and wind up sentenced to 30 days in jail. Beth uses her influence to get the men to do public service instead.

This brings them to Sturdy Wings, a Big Brothers-like organization run by the nutty Ms. Sweeney, played by former Steppenwolf Theatre actress and Second City alum Jane Lynch, who handily purloins every scene she's in. Whether uttering circuitous stream-of-unconsciousness rants about her days of drugs and wanton sex, or hammering Danny and Wheeler into shape, Sweeney is one of several vibrant, engaging supporting players in this breezy, snappy affirmation of second chances.

Next come Augie and Ronnie. Augie ("Superbad" star Christopher Mintz-Plasse making his second movie) is a socially troubled lad who lives for a live-action wizards-and-swords fantasy role-playing game called Laire. He lives with his unsympathetic mother and stepfather who think he's damaged.

Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson) is a boy with a fouler-than-foul mouth suffering from absentee dadism. He gets hooked up with Wheeler as a mentor; Augie gets Danny. As we expect, the pairings prove to be natural disasters, until the so-called "Bigs" and "Littles" slowly find common ground and connect in amazing ways.

This movie boasts a sharply written script (by Rudd, Wain, Ken Marino and Timothy Dowling) in which the acerbic Danny rails against a shallow world hooked on catchphrases ("You complete me!") and insincerity.

Listen carefully and you'll hear an amusing double-entendre about every other line, delivered with deadpan earnestness: "Let us gently touch our tips!" offers one of Augie's sword-bearing fellow fantasy fighters.

"Role Models" constantly plies us with surprises, be it Ronnie's outrageous outbreaks of savage insults, or a last-second female empowerment plot twist.

It's almost like guzzling way too much of that Minotaur energy drink.

'Role Models'

Rating: Three stars

Starring: Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Elizabeth Banks, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Jane Lynch

Directed by: David Wain

Other: A Universal Pictures release. Rated R (language, nudity, sexual situations). 99 minutes