Not just another foul-mouthed slacker comedy, Role Models is the funniest film to be let loose on the big screen since Tropic Thunder. Not that it has an outrageously original plot line or goes places no comedy has ever gone before, it’s just that it’s so perfectly acted, well-timed and quirky that it ends up being irresistible. Really naughty, but really irresistible.

Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd play Wheeler and Danny, respectively, a couple of middle class guys who make their living by going to schools in a behemoth truck, preaching the cons of drugs and the pros of a green, caffeine-laden power drink called Minotaur. Danny wears a dark, conservative business suit, Wheeler wears brawny, hairy minotaur suit.

One day the caffeine and the banality get to them, they go off the deep end and wind up under arrest. In order to stay out of jail they agree to spend more than 100-hours in a mentoring program headed by former crack addict Gayle Sweeney (Jane Lynch). She assigns them two particularly tough cases, the incorrigibly precocious Ronnie (Bobb’e J. Thompson)  and the midieval virtual reality game loving nerd Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

While William Scott is charming as his bad boy self, and Rudd is the perfect disillusioned curmudgeon, it’s Lynch (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind) and Mintz-Plasse, aka McLovin’ from Superbad, who steal the show. If supporting actors in cheeky comedies were ever up for Academy Awards, they should both be nominated. Elizabeth Banks makes an obligatory appearance as Danny’s (ex) girlfriend, possibly because she’s using her comedy coupon book to appear in almost every light film released in the last two month (Zack and Miri Make a Porno, W.).

The film’s major flaw would be the extreme obscene language coming out of Ronnie’s mouth—it goes beyond shockingly amusing and borders on the “isn’t there some sort of law about child actors and verbal indecency?” Definitely leaves you squeamish. But all’s well that ends well in this film – while satisfying, it doesn’t degenerate into the cliché wedding scene — instead, Lynch provides the perfect creepily ever after ending.

Rated R.

-- Lisa Johnson Mandell