Metascore
60 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 31
  2. Negative: 2 out of 31
  1. The fun of Role Models is that it's a high-concept movie executed with speed and finesse and the kind of brusquely tossed-off obscene banter that can get you laughing before you know what hit you.
  2. Reviewed by: Ian Freer
    80
    A great example of the Emotionally Stunted Men Grow A Heart sub-genre. Role Models staves off the January blues and puts a marker down as 2009's laugh-out-loud comedy to beat.
  3. 75
    Sometimes a shamelessly stoopid, proudly profane R-rated comedy is all you want out of life. Role Models more than fills the bill. It's killer funny.
  4. 75
    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.
  5. 75
    The casting is the key to the success of this absolutely hilarious crowd-pleaser.
  6. 75
    Role Models isn't a classic like "Superbad" or as hilarious as this summer's "Step Brothers," but it's excellent fun for males in the mental age bracket of 14 to 22, which is most males.
  7. It's pretty formulaic stuff, and earns its R rating with profanity and unapologetically gratuitous female nudity, but somehow has a winning knuckleheaded charm.
  8. A funny and twisted movie from beginning to end, closing with an emotional payoff.
  9. Reviewed by: Cammila Albertson
    75
    It does consistently remain both totally nuts and totally hilarious.
  10. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    75
    Misfits and misanthropes are the heroes of Role Models, a surprisingly clever comedy.
  11. Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    Any movie that shows its heroes firing up a joint between stints as high-school anti-drug crusaders is true to its black little heart.
  12. Though its grosses may not soar into the realm occupied by "Superbad" and "American Pie," it has more sympathy for its characters.
  13. The surprisingly funny Role Models does three things extremely well. It gives killer roles to comic actors frequently stuck in ensembles. It directs hilariously harsh words at children and lets the children direct even harsher words back at the adults. And it's oddly determined to give a fair shake to fans of both medieval role-playing and the band Kiss.
  14. 75
    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.
  15. Reviewed by: John DeFore
    70
    Rudd and Scott hail from different universes of movie comedy, but manage together here just fine, particularly since each takes a different path.
  16. Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    70
    Wain, Marino, and Rudd pull it off because theirs is a funnier, brainier, bawdier brand of feel-good.
  17. Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    70
    Role Models may not set its sights very high, but it comes by its emotional payoff honestly. And why isn't Paul Rudd in greater demand as a romantic comedy lead?
  18. Reviewed by: Dennis Harvey
    70
    Laden with more than enough profane humor to warrant its R rating, this is nonetheless a formulaic crowd-pleaser.
  19. Reviewed by: Neely Tucker
    70
    You can probably figure out how this is all going to end, but it still has more laughs than you might think. Nobody gets more than the wonderful Jane Lynch as the ex-drug addict and director of the mentoring program.
  20. 70
    The general tone is one of crusty, unapologetic misanthropy, driven home by the formidable Rudd (who also kicked in on the script).
  21. Reviewed by: Josh Rosenblatt
    67
    Misanthropy in the movies has a new face. And, surprising to say, it's a handsome one. A matinee-idol face, in fact. Some might even go so far as to call it "dreamy." It's the face of Paul Rudd.
  22. Role Models wouldn't be anything without Mintz-Plasse, whose character occasions what may be the cinema's first really funny Marvin Hamlisch joke, and whose camera presence is at once unfailingly modest and distinctive.
  23. 63
    Role Models has a tart surface and a heart of goo. The movie grows more obvious as it goes along.
  24. 50
    It's disposable entertainment at its most extreme.
  25. By the time the film reaches its big mushy climax, in which the slackers discover their inner caring during a dopey medieval role-playing battle, the movie starts to feel something like a pleasure again.
  26. 50
    Isn't as uproarious as it pretends to be. The foul language, the constant repetition of words like the aforementioned "boobies" -- look, they've even got me doing it -- doesn't feel daring or cathartic, only canned.
  27. In this brand of comedy, nothing succeeds like excess, and this film is seriously deficient.
  28. With the ferocity of a drill instructor and the boundless confidence of a self-help guru who combines psychobabble clichés with embarrassingly explicit confessions, Ms. Lynch's Gayle redeems the movie from utter banality.
  29. Furiously raunchy, occasionally bright and eventually benumbing comedy.
  30. Where on the evolutionary scale of wacky-dudes-learn-to-grow-up movies does Role Models fall? Certainly less evolved than "Meatballs," but head and hairy knuckles above "Daddy Day Care" or "The Benchwarmers."
  31. Reviewed by: Matthew Sorrento
    20
    If "Models'" comedy is a bore, the characters' redemption is sheer agony – not to mention the shameless pop-cultural referencing that repeats like a bad taco.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 91 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 44
  2. Negative: 2 out of 44
  1. Role Models sadly does fall for the cliche that little kids saying swear words is still funny, but still Paul Rudd, Sean William Scott and Jane Lynch give very impressive performances which is too much to resist. I give this movie 64%. Full Review »
  2. 7
    Basically anything Sean William Scott is in will be hilarious. And when you add Paul Rudd and McLovin and the little kid Ronnie, you've got a funny movie. Full Review »
  3. It was ok. A rather generic comedy if you ask me. Paul Rudd, Sean William Scott, and Jane Lynch give good performances in this and that is what really carries the film. Funny at times and corny at others. Full Review »