"B+" Rating by Robert W. Hammerle

"Role Models" is as profane as it is borderline obscene, and it's also a hysterical scream. Using the artistic freedom flowing from a richly deserved "R" rating, it not only finds fun and enjoyment in vulgarity, but it comes close to giving it a good name.

Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott play Danny Donahue and Wheeler, two co-workers on the bottom rung of life's ladder. They both work for a company that manufactures an energy drink called Minitower, and our boys peddle this adrenaline-laden poison to secondary schools under the guise of giving anti-drug seminars.

Wheeler, who dresses as a Minitower during these cynical presentations, is completely happy with his professional life, or as he so succinctly put it, "Where else can you find a job that you can do everyday hung-over?" He is in perpetual heat, and is a greatfully improved version of the same character that he eventually ran into the ground as Stifler in the "American Pie" series.

Donahue, on the other hand, is accelerating downward in a self-centered depression that he can't control. He is undergoing an early midlife crisis where he is spiraling into irrelevance. Everything and anything annoys Donahue, including Wheeler.

In particular, there is a scene that we all can relate to where he walks into a Starbucks-like coffee shop and explodes over the simple fact that you have to use words like "Grande" and "Venti" as opposed to common sense terms like small, medium and large. If one of the hallmarks of the Industrial Revolution was the standardization of terms, Donahue can't understand why we as a society are heading in another direction, and quite frankly I can't say that I disagree with him.

However, Donahue's depression becomes so extreme that his long time live-in girlfriend moves out. Delightfully played in a small role by Elizabeth Banks, she is an attorney who simply can no longer tolerate the man Donahue has morphed into as opposed to the one that she still loves.

But as refreshing and tantalizing as this movie is to this point, it reaches a second gear when Donahue and Wheeler are forced to do community service as a result of an unfortunate arrest for reasons that need to be seen to be believed. Assigned to a community outreach center called Sturdy Wings, they are each given a young boy to mentor.

Given their own dysfunctional state, their relationships with their charges are frequently absurdly humorous to the extreme. Donahue's lad, a boy named Augie Farks, is fixated on participating with a group of adults and young people in a jousting tournament right out of something that you would associate with Robin Hood and his battle with the Sheriff of Nottingham. Farks, played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse [you will remember him as the immortal McLovin from "Superbad" (2007)], is an earnest teenager who simply wants to participate in his own harmless medieval fantasies despite the objections of his parents and nearly everyone else.

Wheeler is assigned to one of the most foul-mouthed preteens to ever grace the screen, a kid named Ronnie Shields. Spectacularly played by Bobb'e J. Thompson, these two immature goofs form one of the greatest comic teams to have graced the screen in quite a few years.

However, as good as everyone is in this movie, no one exceeds the performance of Jane Lynch, who plays Gayle Sweeny, the head of Sturdy Wings. A self-confessed ex-cocaine addict and "ex-w----," she is a combination of bizarre idiosecrencies that are all but impossible to describe. Drawing on her memorable performances in such splendid films as "Forty Year Old Virgin" (2005), "A Mighty Wind" (2003) and "Talladega Nights" (2006), she comes off as a psychologically damaged Madonna impersonator trying to channel Mother Teresa. Regardless, you are not likely to forget her.

As some critics have noted, the only downside to "Role Models" was its unfortunate need to copout with a feel-good ending. While "Role Models" is refreshingly irreverent as it frequently pushes the outside of the envelope of good taste, it tragically abandons its nerve and opts for an ending that's all to formulistic and standard. Let me put it this way, the onscreen characters are applauding each other at the end.

But having said that, "Role Models" remains both subversive and edgy, and Mr. Rudd deserves a great deal of credit as both the star and co-writer.

Should you decide to go, and I heartily recommend it, be prepared to repeatedly laugh out loud, even if at times it is against your better judgment. However, let me warn you against taking anyone under the age of 14 unless you also bring a sound proof bag to frequently pull over their head.

S