Film: A-
Adult comedies has made a big comeback thanks to roads that Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow have paved. Add David Wain to that list, the director and co-writer of last year’s surprise comedy Role Models. Why did it shock so many? Because they successfully made a funny film around LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) mostly.

Paul Rudd (Knocked Up) stars as Danny, an energy drink peddler who with his co-worker, Wheeler (Sean William-Scott) avoid jail time for having a meltdown on a high school campus. His girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks) Instead they must complete 150 hours for Sturdy Wings, a mentorship program similar to Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Assigned to the two worst children, Danny must form a bond with socially inept Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) whose only interest is LARPing while Wheeler gets Ronnie (Bobbie J. Thompson), the most vulgar, gangsta-wannabe 10-year old you’ll ever come across.

The two pairs struggle to adjust to their forced arrangements but in time they build surface friendships with each other camping and other day long activities?anything to get through the ordeal as fast as possible. Wheeler finds that he and Ronnie have enough similarities to get by. They both act like kids and they love the ladies, well, parts of them. And Danny accompanies him to his LARP outings meeting other eccentrics like Kuzzik (Joe Lo Truglio) and perhaps the most creative casting of 2008 outside of Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder, Dr. Ken Jeong (Knocked Up) as the King. But like all good things, Danny and Wheeler mess up big again, and lose the trust of their “littles” facing the wrath of Galye Sweeney (Jane Lynch), creator of Sturdy Wings and violate their community service. Augie gets kicked out of his LARPing group, and Wheeler puts his little member before Ronnie. It all builds to a climax with Danny and Wheeler facing jail time again and risk it all to be good “bigs” by supporting Augie and forming their own LARP tribe, a tribute to the rock band KISS and head into Cos-play battle that looks like something out of a low-rent local renaissance festival.

Role Models is fast with the laughs and full of improvised lines that will have you rolling. Rudd has fast become this generation’s poster boy for young cynics, selfish and quick to douse any fun being had around them with dry wit venom. His performance is the anchor that holds the ship sturdy in seemingly unchartered waters. But the two young actors, Thompson and Mintz-Plasse (Superbad’s McLovin’) step up and will easily win you over. And as much as LARPing is poked at, I think even their biggest champions with a sense of humor would be proud at the loving care given to put a pretty positive spin on it. It might be the film most unlikely of films to win you over, but that’s what makes it so good.

Video: A-
Role Models hath a 1080 AVC-encoded MPEG-4 transfer and maintains the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio of the theatrical release. This isn’t the type of film where you’re looking for high definition to impress you, but it does. Colors are saturated at a comfortable level and skintones look pleasing and natural. There’s good contrast and shadows throughout the film whether it be day scenes in the sunlight or camping at night with campfires being the only source of light. Don’t bother looking to be distracted by any artificial enhancement or marring effects because there simply are none. Universal does a smash-up job here.

Audio: B+
On the technical side, Role Models does an admirable job at once again startling you in high definition with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. By no means are we talking a sci-fi film here, but as a dialogue-driven film, most of the audio accurately placed in the center channel speaker and ramps up for big music moments and big scenes, but there some ambient background noise that gets pushed to the surround channels. Spanish and French 5.1 DTS tracks are also available.

Extras: B+

All of the featurettes are in high definition and in 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo.

Starting off, there’s anAudio Commentary with Director/Co-Writer David Wain and it’s worth a listen or two. He talks about the plot points, and where cuts were made and why, and working in the improvisation style. I think I would have liked one of the child actors on the bill just to have that second point of view who could ask questions and converse with Wain but this is not a bad place to visit fresh after watching the film.Rather than have several small featurettes, Universal gives you the option of U-Control Picture-in-Picture – which I’m beginning to really enjoy on the blu-ray format. It gives you a chance to go through the film again, and perhaps know a little more behind a scene and see final moment behind. Some of the many things to learn about are the truth behind the Minotaur, behind the camera stuff, interviews with cast and crew as they explore their own characters at different moments of the story. No doubt that much of this material will be split off into featurettes for the DVD, however the picture-in-picture experience is exclusive to blu-ray.

Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes (49:49)- is a whopping mass of extra and extended takes which are showing up more on these outrageous comedy films. There’s lots of good stuff here to laugh at, and also some character developing of Ronnie’s mom who is revealed to be strongly attracted to Wheeler, but I think wisely the crew decided against that and all of the scenes relating to that. This is a blu-ray exclusive also.

Bloopers (3:55)- I’m not sure why they couldn’t fit these in either in the U-Control Picture-in-Picture or the Alternate Takes but these are your typical bloopers.

On the Set of Role Models ( 7:41)Co-writers Paul Rudd, David Wain and Ken Marino chat about the film and how it came together.

Game On: Creating a Role Playing World (9:43) is a good featurette about taking the bold turn in featuring LARPing and trying to be faithful to that world but having fun with it.

In-Character & Off-Script (8:07) – three little skit scenes with “Sturdy Wings Salutes: Martin Gary, Kuzzik: Proud Xanthian, Davith of Glencracken.

Ye Olde Crest Maker – a useless exercise in creating your own crest from 4 templates, not one of them is worth revisiting.

Overall Shock Value: B+

Comedy is such a subjective thing that I often caution recommending any comedic film to everyone. If you like vulgar comedies, and you’ve got a little geek in you, then Role Models gets my full endorsement. As for the unrated vs. rated, I could barely tell the three minute difference but there’s a little more nudity and a little more vulgarity. But remember that there’s enough “Aww shucks” sweetness at the end to balance all of that out. Role Models will come out of nowhere and please you. Any film that does that is a good one in my book and here it’s honored with bonus material that compliments the blu-ray format with multiple ways to view the film after the first run. So gather a bunch of your rowdiest drinking friends and watch Role Models. It’’s so good you may even be inspired to make costumes and go LARPing afterwards. You never know.

Ernie Estrella