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Role Models

ROLE MODELS (David Wain). 99 minutes. Opens Friday (November 7). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNNN


Role Models proves once and for all the awesome comedic potential of KISS. Yes, I know you already thought they were a joke, but it’s a helluva lot funnier when it’s Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott telling it.

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The glam gods themselves don’t make a cameo, but they provide several inspired jokes, and the laughs are never at their expense. And that’s just one of the pleasant surprises this funny, if formulaic, self-improvement comedy delivers.

The set-up is simple: Rudd (also a co-writer) and Scott play mid-life losers who pedal energy drinks to school kids for a living. When they violate a horse statue with their monster truck, they’re sentenced to court-ordered community service in a Big Brothers-type program.

The misanthropic Rudd is stuck with a sensitive nerd (McLovin’ himself, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) who dresses like a reject from Lord Of The Rings and fights other dorks in real-life Dungeons & Dragons battles. Horndog Scott is paired with a boobie-obsessed brat (a hilarious Bobb’e J. Thompson) who drops the F-bomb like a pint-sized Chris Rock.

While nobody gets along, including Rudd and his lawyer/ex-girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks), by the end everybody’s ready to kiss and make up.

And that’s not giving anything away.

Foul, funny and occasionally quite sweet, the movie’s biggest surprise is that über-producer Judd Apatow wasn’t involved.

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