Screenhead

Our winner is Jason (46) — congratulations!!! 

At VOD, you are able to access hundreds of movies including new releases and your favorite classics, instantly!  You have the ability to choose in the comfort of your own home anytime.  And don’t sweat the bad weather as VOD is your no-hassle choice for spontaneous home movie entertainment.  Always paying late fees on rentals?  With VOD there are no returns and associated late fees to worry about. In addition, you are able to pause, rewind and fast-forward as you watch; it works like a DVD player without having to buy any extra equipment!  

The movie Role Models is a hilarious comedy. Danny and Wheeler are two salesmen who trash a company truck on an energy drink-fueled bender.  Upon their arrest, the court gives them a choice: do hard time or spend 150 service hours with a mentorship program.  After one day with the kids, however, jail doesn’t look half bad. Surrounded by annoying do-gooders, Danny struggles with his every neurotic impulse to guide Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) through the trials of becoming a man.  Unfortunately, the guy just dumped by his girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) has only sarcasm to offer a bashful 16-year-old obsessed with medieval role play. Meanwhile, charming Wheeler tries to trade in an addiction to partying and women to assist a fifth-grader named Ronnie (Bobb’e Thompson) redirect his foul-mouthed ways.  It would probably help if Ronnie’s new mentor wasn’t an overgrown adolescent whose idea of quality time includes keggers in Venice Beach. Once the center’s ex-con director (Jane Lynch) gives them an ultimatum, Danny and Wheeler are forced to tailor their brand of immature wisdom to their charges.  And if they can just make it through probation without getting thrown in jail, the world’s worst role models will prove that, sometimes, it takes a village idiot to raise a child.

Also, as a special feature for those you can’t get enough of Role Models, here is a link to the Role Models Babe Watcher Game. You can help Wheeler, Danny, Augie and Ronnie find babes to hang out with!

As you know the most irreverent and funny comedy that brings new meaning to juvenile delinquency: Role Models, is available at Video on Demand (VOD)!

Screenhead has one Role Models prize pack that includes a t-shirt and hat as a giveaway package to promote access to Role Models at VOD.  

Post your name and Screenhead will pick the lucky giveaway winner Tuesday, May 26, 2009.

At VOD, you are able to access hundreds of movies including new releases and your favorite classics, instantly!  You have the ability to choose in the comfort of your own home anytime.  And don’t sweat the bad weather as VOD is your no-hassle choice for spontaneous home movie entertainment.  Always paying late fees on rentals?  With VOD there are no returns and associated late fees to worry about. In addition, you are able to pause, rewind and fast-forward as you watch; it works like a DVD player without having to buy any extra equipment!  

The movie Role Models is a hilarious comedy. Danny and Wheeler are two salesmen who trash a company truck on an energy drink-fueled bender.  Upon their arrest, the court gives them a choice: do hard time or spend 150 service hours with a mentorship program.  After one day with the kids, however, jail doesn’t look half bad. Surrounded by annoying do-gooders, Danny struggles with his every neurotic impulse to guide Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) through the trials of becoming a man.  Unfortunately, the guy just dumped by his girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) has only sarcasm to offer a bashful 16-year-old obsessed with medieval role play. Meanwhile, charming Wheeler tries to trade in an addiction to partying and women to assist a fifth-grader named Ronnie (Bobb’e Thompson) redirect his foul-mouthed ways.  It would probably help if Ronnie’s new mentor wasn’t an overgrown adolescent whose idea of quality time includes keggers in Venice Beach. Once the center’s ex-con director (Jane Lynch) gives them an ultimatum, Danny and Wheeler are forced to tailor their brand of immature wisdom to their charges.  And if they can just make it through probation without getting thrown in jail, the world’s worst role models will prove that, sometimes, it takes a village idiot to raise a child.

Also, as a special feature for those you can’t get enough of Role Models, here is a link to the Role Models Babe Watcher Game. You can help Wheeler, Danny, Augie and Ronnie find babes to hang out with!

It’s not hard to see why people might have a monster hate-on over something like Role Models—on its surface, it looks to be yet another crass comedy featuring a pair of losers whose lives suck almost as hard as the careers of the actors portraying them.  And yet, despite the fact that both Paul Rudd AND Seann William Scott are involved, Role Models will manage to do the impossible and be a good movie.

Buddies straitlaced, bitter Danny and freewheeling ladies’ man Wheeler (whom we later find out is actually named Anson) work together pitching an energy drink to kids called Minotaur.  Wheeler wears a minotaur costume, Danny wears a suit, and together they drive around from school to school in a pickup truck shaped a lot like a minotaur for the twofold purpose of keeping kids off drugs and hawking energy drink, sufficient quantities of which have been shown to turn urine a bright green.  While Wheeler loves his job, Danny is beginning to hate life, wanting more from it.  Eventually, Danny loses it under the strain and attempts to steal his truck back from a tow truck that was seizing it due to parking it in the wrong spot after his girlfriend dumped him.  Danny soon after finds himself facing a bitter choice along with friend Wheeler—thirty days in jail, or a hundred and eighty hours of community service with a group called Sturdy Wings, a Big Brothers-esque sort of program run by a former crackhead.

See what I mean?  It’s got all the basic traits of a lousy buddy comedy: two lousy buddy comedy actors (Dude Where’s My Car ringing a bell for anyone?), an outlandish plotline (I wouldn’t trust these goons behind the controls of a television set let alone with my kid), and ultimate resolution.

But, almost in spite of itself, Role Models turned out to be a solidly done comedy that I loved.  Oh, sure, there were some awkward moments, but seriously, how often do you see boffer LARP as a plot device in a movie?  Almost NEVER, that’s how often.  Seeing it here really got my attention.  And yes, it’s your standard formula of two-slackers-learn-a-lesson, but it’s pretty well executed, and there’s lots of funny moments that’ll leave you laughing.  And just maybe, even cheering a little.

Oh, sure, it’s a bit formulaic.  It follows the standard arcs and even borrows heavily from plenty of other comedies that have come before it.  But it still turns out to be downright heartwarming, watching the two morons learn their lesson.  Watching Danny’s attitude about life change from his time with the LARPers, watching Wheeler become more mature from his time with his “little”, even watching how the two kids matched to Danny and Wheeler change for the better from THEIR time in—yeah, of course we saw it coming from a mile away because the thing’s cracking off magnesium flares every three feet and wearing a five foot tall neon sign saying “Hey! Look at me!”, but it’s still worth the watching nonetheless.

I can’t believe I got charmed by this little comedy.  I can’t believe I got sucked in to such a clearly formulaic potboiler.  But the fact remains that I did, and chances are, you will too.

The winner of Role Models DVD is Randall Curran!

Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott star in the outrageously funny comedy Role Models,coming to DVD and Blu-ray on March 10, 2009 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.  Also featuring memorable, laugh-out-loud performances from Elizabeth Banks, Christopher Mintz Plasse and Jane Lynch, fans will be able to choose between viewing the film in its theatrical rated version or over-the-top unrated version of the film not seen in theaters.

Just to let you know, I will be setting up another Role Models giveaway this month, which includes a t-shirt and hat.  Make sure you check back at Screenhead around April 23rd.

Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott star in the outrageously funny comedy Role Models, coming to DVD and Blu-ray on March 10, 2009 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.  Also featuring memorable, laugh-out-loud performances from Elizabeth Banks, Christopher Mintz Plasse and Jane Lynch, fans will be able to choose between viewing the film in its theatrical rated version or over-the-top unrated version of the film not seen in theaters.

Screenhead is co-sponsoring a giveaway of Role Models with Universal Studios Home Entertainment.  Please post your name and we will pick the winner Tuesday, March 24, 2009.

Weekend Box Office Estimate arrived early this morning. It looks like James Bond took the lead with Daniel Craig kicking, hitting and shooting his way through the bad guys in Quantum of Solace. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa held its own in second with Role Models in third.

November 14, 2008 - November 16, 2008 (*millions)

I am not surprised that Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa moved it to first place for the Weekly Box Office standings. Role Models came in a raunchy second and High School Musical 3: Senior Year sang and danced in third.

James Bond is coming to the scene with Quantum of Solace, which should prove interesting against Madagascar. Overseas the Bond movie scored big time. For domestic sales, your guess is as good as mine . Only Sunday will tell. 

November 7, 2008 - November 13, 2008(*millions)

Here is an estimate of the movie box office weekend. Not surprisingly, Madagascar Escape 2 Africa came in first with a wild $63,500,000. The rest of the movies pretty much sunk in the sand with Role Models in second and the ever popular High School Musical 3: Senior Year in third.

November 7, 2008 - November 9, 2008 (*millions)

Musical chairs is what comes to mind because movies are rescheduling as a common practice. Now, Quantum of Solace is set to open a week later than originally scheduled. Sony and MGM jumped on the chance to bow its Bond movie November 14 instead of Nov. 7 because Harry is taking the holidays off.

Bond titles have traditionally opened the weekend before Thanksgiving, but Sony didn’t want to open too close to Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, so it originally settled on Nov. 7 according to Variety.

Warner Bros. announced it was pushing back Half-Blood Prince from Nov. 21 to July.  The competition is gone, so Bond’s schedule changed.

As you probably know Summit Entertainment was the first to respond to Harry’s rescheduling by moving vampire movie Twilight to Nov. 21.

Within hours of the Bond movie move to Nov. 14, Universal come to a decision to move R-rated comedy Role Models off of that date and open it instead on Nov. 7.

As it looks now, schedules could change; Solace goes up against epic Australia, Nothing Like the Holidays and Soul Men.