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For those of you who didn’t know the name Paul Rudd until Knocked Up, Role Models will show you why the rest of us find him so endearingly hilarious. While Rudd may be today intertwined with the Judd Apatow camp at times, he first and foremost belonged to another, in my opinion funnier, troupe: the team that brought you Wet Hot American Summer. Role Models, while not entirely a product of this group, offers a comedy that delivers enough laughs per minute to help you overlook its flaws.

Danny Donahue (Rudd) and Wheeler (Sean William Scott) have two wildly disparate viewpoints on the same job. Wheeler’s days of dressing up as a minotaur to peddle an energy drink as an alternative to drugs allows him the freedom of lifestyle that apparently gets him all the ladies and promiscuity he ever wanted. How it is women are attracted to this guy, who dresses up as a bull-man, is beyond me – but that’s okay. Danny, on the other hand, hates his life. It’s a hatred so deeply rooted that he takes it out on the job eventually going on an energy drink binge and eventually crashing his minotaur truck into a sexually suggestive accident. Danny’s life begins spinning madly out of control after his girlfriend swears off his pessimistic ways and he finds himself doing 150 hours of child mentoring in penance for the energy binge’s aftermath – with Wheeler by his side.

Enter Superbad favorite Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Danny’s mentee Augie Farks, a Live Action Role Play (LARP) devotee with humorously unsupportive parents. Meanwhile, Wheeler finds himself attempting to handle Ronnie (Bobbe J. Thompson) a kid who ends up supplying more than his fair share of the funny even, at times, overpowering Sean William Scott on the comedy scale. While the plot takes us in very familiar directions, it provides enough of Paul Rudd’s dry, sarcastic wit and hopeless adolescent awkwardness on the parts of Mintz-Plasse and Thompson to keep even the rehashed comedic moments feel fresh and laugh-worthy.  Role Model’s gives us a formulaic storybook ending but with a climactic and often laugh-out-loud sequence that’s just far too enjoyable to watch. Tremendous.

Paul Rudd, if you didn’t know by now, mastered sarcasm. Every bit of dialogue lets you know he’s an ass and yet his charm and comedic ability give him an air that you just can’t help but laugh with. As Danny, Rudd gets to play the part he’s best at – pessimistic and loving it. But what would you expect when he helped write the movie? Paul Rudd makes this movie. If you’re not a fan of the man after Role Models then you probably never will be.

My opinion of Sean William Scott seems to increase with everything he does. This feat made possible by the fact that the first thing I ever saw him in was Bulletproof Monk (let’s not talk about that) and consequently every film afterward makes him look better and better. In Role Models his immature nature brings the perfect clash for his mentee who helps him realize that perhaps there’s an age where full-blown immaturity needs to be tapered back in favor of responsibility. While he plays his immature niche for the majority of the film it offers a semblance of proof that he’s got a few dramatic skills underneath as well.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Typical role for him. But still very, very funny. Mainly because I think anyone who plays the part of the enthusiastic LARPer comes with an automatic air of goofiness. Yet, LARP gets a pretty good representation here showing it and its participants as fun-loving folk just enjoying it like it’s any other hobby (which it is…I guess). Mintz-Plasse’s geeky naivete definitely provided the perfect counterpart to Rudd’s sarcasm.

As I said before, Bobbe J. Thompson at times steals the comedic show out from underneath Sean William Scott – but only because the film has Scott concentrating more on girl-chasing and realizing things about life…and stuff. But Bobbe J. Thompson will probably be popping up in many more movies in the future. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Beyond the original cast I’d be remiss if I didn’t take note of Jane Lynch and Ken Marino. Lynch is the Sturdy Wings mentor program coordinator who’s constant references to a past coke-head life serve as a really funny and dependable running joke. Marino on the other hand plays the disapproving stepfather to Augie and plays the part so perfectly. The looks of revulsion, comments about the hobby’s freakishness – it’s all so perfect…and painfully familiar. Oh…and Elizabeth Banks is in Role Models too, but her part fits within 10 minutes of screen time giving her very little room to make much of an impression – but she’s terrific as always.

For all of you out there who need a reminder of how painful your youthful awkwardness was Role Models will serve you well. For those of you who don’t need the reminder (because the scars are still healing) Role Models will let you commiserate. Either way Role Models is well worth your cinematic time.