Role Models (2008)

Directed by David Wain. What you probably don't know about me is that I have to exercise every day and I hate to do it. I am not one of these people with a passion for fitness. I am one of these people who could live on bacon and cookie dough. The exercise dictum is why I see so many movies. A high percentage of my film viewing is done while I exercise -- on a machine in front of a big screen, with the volume loud but subtitles on.

This means that, for me, I divide movies into three categories: the very special ones I've really been looking forward to seeing and won't exercise in front of, the ones I can't exercise in front of because they don't have subtitles, and everything else.

I'd planned for "Role Models" as "everything else," just one of the normal ones that I can exercise in front of, though by about halfway through I realized that I had been discriminating against it in a really weird way. I knew that it was going to be pretty good but I also knew what it was going to be like, it's basic pace, it's edge-to-heart ratio, the strength of its performers (Paul Rudd, Sean William Scott, Jane Lynch, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Elizabeth Banks) -- and because of I confused reliability with predictability. Unfair.

This is a great comedy. For me, I don't think that just because there happens to be a lot of this sort of stuff coming out of Hollywood right now isn't a good reason to take it for granted. I liked that an energy drink brand is a key element of the plot of this flick yet there is not one scene where somebody gets all amped up on energy drinks. I liked that even the stereotypes plumbed here have some depth. And I always love me some KISS references. And by the way, this Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who played McLovin in "Superbad," may have some range.

All I'm saying is that I would see this again, and next time I won't exercise. Though to be fair I never exercise to the same movie twice.