Role Models.

"Let us now praise Paul Rudd," begins Alonso Duralde at MSNBC. "While this leading man seems to eschew the usual off-screen antics that put performers on the public's radar, Rudd dependably brings a dry, intelligent wit to movie after movie. Whether in comedy classics (Clueless, Knocked Up) or clunkers (Over Her Dead Body), he has quietly accumulated an impressive résumé of engaging, entertaining performances. With Role Models, he may suddenly find himself getting the attention he has largely avoided, because his work here is at a game-changing level for a young actor."

Updated through 11/7.

"In every way, this is just another formulaic romp about two selfish slackers getting their priorities rearranged by a couple of kids—instead of breaking new ground, it polishes it with sandpaper." Robert Wilonsky in the Voice: "But [co-writers David] Wain, [Ken] Marino and Rudd pull it off because theirs is a funnier, brainier, bawdier brand of feel-good... and because you can never go wrong with a climactic, foam-padded sword fight set to Kiss."

"Wain doesn't mimic Judd Apatow's sweet-and-smutty recipe," writes Nick Schager in Slant. "Wain's story is in search of nothing except the next ribald one-liner and, mercifully, the good slightly outweigh the lame, with Rudd and [Seann William] Scott forming a suitably well-matched duo - one glum, miserable and droll, the other upbeat, horny and dumb - and the script filled out with amusingly stupid homoerotic turns of phrase."

Capone talks with Rudd for AICN.

Updates, 11/6: "In its loose, ramshackle, gleefully profane first half, Role Models suggests School of Rock with Tourette's, or the original Bad News Bears without the baseball," suggests Nathan Rabin at the AV Club. "But in its inferior second half, the laughs subside and valuable life lessons begin in earnest."

"The post-boomer generation has been flummoxed by its unearned adolescent privileges," writes Armond White in the New York Press. "Stuck crashing weddings - a degraded metaphor for what used to be called rebellion - they have a difficult time articulating their own principles. Hollywood hasn't helped by catering to this immaturity, but Role Models flips that script."

"Role Models never quite takes off into the comic stratosphere, but it gives you a few good laughs... and it doesn't do anything to annoy you the rest of the time," writes Paul Matwychuk.

At the SpoutBlog, Christopher Campbell lists "5 State Skits That Should Be Movies."

Robert Abele profiles Christopher Mintz-Plasse for the Los Angeles Times.

Online viewing tips. Tribeca presents "5 More Reasons to Love Paul Rudd."

Updates, 11/7: "Especially after Kevin Smith's emotionally stunted Zack and Miri Make a Porno, it's nice to see a dirty-minded romantic comedy (is there any other kind of romantic comedy these days?) in which the sweetness doesn't seem slapped onto the raunch like bad store-bought icing," writes Slate's Dana Stevens. "Role Models may not set its sights very high, but it comes by its emotional payoff honestly."

No, it "isn't as uproarious as it pretends to be," writes Salon's Stephanie Zacharek. "[E]verything feels a little too much like business as usual."

"[F]or the crowd-pleasing finale, in which the players don Kiss makeup for a final battle, Role Models pours sugar and cream on everything and turns it to mush," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times.

"How much are you willing to suffer for a Paul Rudd fix?" asks David Fear in Time Out New York.

But for Roger Ebert, this is the "kind of comedy where funny people say funny things in funny situations, not the kind of comedy that whacks you with manic shocks to force an audible Pavlovian response."

Mark Olsen profiles Wain for the Los Angeles Times.

Online listening tip. Noah Forrest talks with Wain for Movie City News.

Posted by dwhudson at November 5, 2008 11:17 AM