Role Models (Unrated)

Role Models, several critics suggest, belongs to the Judd Apatow school of movie comedies, or as Stephen Holden in the New York Times describes them, "arrested-development comedies." That's not necessarily bad, says Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, who observes, "A formula plot works if you're laughing at the plot and not noticing the formula." Claudia Puig in USA Today concludes that the movie is "a rare mainstream buddy comedy that deftly blends the endearing and the vulgar and intersperses raucous humor with subtle wit." Kyle Smith in the New York Post advises that it's "excellent fun for males in the mental age bracket of 14 to 22, which is most males." But Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel suggests that Paul Rudd, who conceived the movie and stars in it and is part of Judd Apatow's "inner circle," may be playing copy-cat. He concludes: "As funny as some bits are ... they best you can say about Role Models is that it's imitation Apatow. It lacks the master's crude touch."