credit: www.impawards.com
Theatrical release: Sept. 29, 2006
Director:
Todd Phillips
Cast:
Billy Bob Thorton”¦”¦”¦.Dr. P/Dennis
Jon Heder..”¦”¦..Roger
Jacinda Barrett..”¦”¦..Amanda
David Cross..”¦”¦..Ian
Michael Clarke Duncan”¦”¦”¦.Lesher
Luis Guzmán”¦”¦”¦.Sargeant Moorehead
Todd Louiso..”¦”¦..Eli
Horatio Sanz….Diego
Matt Walsh”¦”¦”¦.Walsh
Sarah Silverman”¦”¦”¦.Becky
Ben Stiller
Todd Phillips proved he knew low brow funny with Road Trip, and made everyone root for the underdog with Old School. However, he lost some footing with the bland Starsky & Hutch. Will he regain that lost footing with his newest underdog story School For Scoundrels?
Jon Heder stars as Roger, the lose’s loser. He’s such a loser that the boys at the Boys & Girls Club reject him. He likes his next door neighbor, Amanda (Jacinda Barrett) but can hardly talk to her. Roge’s luck is about to change when is friend Ian (David Cross) gives him a super secret phone number, telling him to “Call it or burn it.”
With that Roger is off to Dr. P’s (Billy Bob Thorton) motivational course. Where he, with the assistance of a brutish man named Lesher (Michael Clarke Duncan), teaches a class full of losers how to be men. Roger turns out to be a quick learned and soon he’s out on his first date with Amanda. Things are going great until Dr. P, under the guise of Dennis, starts after Amanda’s affection. Soon teacher and students are at each othe’s throats trying to prove who is the lion and who is the sheep.
One can pretty much guess where it goes from there, and that’s the biggest flaw with Scoundrels. It’s completely predictable every step of the way, as everything that happens is exactly what could be expected to happen. It’s a flaw with the writing, as there are many scenes that seem to have no end. The anticipation of how a scene ends goes up high, but then it’s cut away quickly. It’s confusing and annoying, as one can forgive it the first time but after it happens a few times it gets very frustrating. A lot of the film is unbelievable, as changes happen too fast. The losers get cool way too quick for it to matter.
“I’ve got two girls back at my apartment who think I’m Moby,” Eli (Todd Louiso) says, and it seems the only reason Amanda likes Roger is because she’s supposed to. He never really does anything besides faint in front of her; how this would make a girl like her fall for a guy like him is a bit puzzling. On top of all of this, School for Scoundrels is a remake of an adaptation of a book, making it even more unoriginal.
Many of the funniest scenes in the film seem taken right out of other, better films. When Roger and Dr. P are going at each other one can’t help think of very similar scenes from Rushmore. Or when Roger and Amanda are liberating the lobsters from the restaurant one can’t help think of a much funnier lobster scene in Annie Hall. The problem also occurs because of its lead actor.
Heder is not nearly a strong enough actor to carry a film like this and Thorton out shines him every step of the way. When Roger suddenly becomes cool, it’s hard to believe. Heder plays the role of the loser well, having perfected it with Napoleon Dynamite, and can’t do much beyond that it seems. Every movie since then it seems like he’s just playing Napoleon again.
One of the stand out performances in the film comes from Ben Stiller who shows up near the end as a former student of Dr. P’s who was ruined by the man. He now lives in a house filled with newspapers and 50 cats. This is the funniest Stiller has been in a long time. Other smalls rolls filled with funny people include Sarah Silverman as Amanda’s mouthy roommate, David Cross as Roge’s friend Ian, and Luis Guzmán as Roge’s boss. These three aren’t given a lot to work with, but they know how to make almost anything funny and do their best with what they’re given.
While there are humorous moments in the film, much of it falls flat. The film doesn’t try to tread any new ground and suffers from a poor script, and mediocre acting. The film isn’t all bad; there are plenty of scenes and moments that are funny. There is just a lot of down time between the laughs that could have been put to better use.
