On the Big Board |
| Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
| 13/31 |
Les Winan |
Hilarious from start to finish. You can really feel Paul Rudd's influence over the script. |
| 25/196 |
Max Braden |
There's a lot or really funny stuff in the normal oddball people behavior. Banks' deleted coffee shop riff is hilarious. |
Paul Rudd’s movie career had been downhill ever since his theatrical debut in 1995’s Clueless. As the love interest in one of the most influential movies in the mid-1990s, the actor appeared poised to become an A-List actor. His follow-up career choices unfortunately undid much of the promise demonstrated with Clueless. Forgettable turns in even more forgettable movies such as 200 Cigarettes, The Object of My Affection and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers left one of the most talented actors of his generation on career life support.
Then, Paul Rudd discovered something. It is good to be pals with Judd Apatow.
Rudd’s career resuscitation began with a key role as Phoebe’s boyfriend on Friends. He leveraged this into a role in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, wherein he befriended one of the movie’s producers, Apatow, whose Hollywood star was about to rise. Since then, Rudd has worked constantly in such hit projects as The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Night at the Museum, Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The man who appeared to be a one hit wonder in the late '90s has proven himself to be one of the funniest people in the industry today.
Seann William Scott’s career somewhat parallels Rudd’s in that his first movie role was in the iconic teen sex comedy, American Pie. Since making that movie and its two sequels, Scott’s career has not reached the heights that had been projected for him by industry observers. He has a better overall body of work than Rudd at a similar point in his career, but Dude, Where’s My Car, The Rundown and Dukes of Hazzard are all quality titles that earned mediocre amounts of box office revenue. Evolution, Bulletproof Monk, Southland Tales and The Promotion are all bombs. Scott has some hits on his resume such as Old School and Final Destination, but he was not the draw in either of those titles. To date, his career has been about unrealized promise as well as unmatched expectations.
For these reasons, the idea of Scott and Rudd starring in a buddy comedy is quite appealing. The two men portray energy drink salesmen whose sophomoric behavior lands them in a community service program. They wind up mentoring two innocent boys who, needless to say, are not prepared for the Superbad-flavored tutelage they receive. Rudd’s long time writing partner, David Wain, directs the project. Fans of The State know who he is, and he’s brought along his buddy Ken Marino, the “I wanna dip my balls in it!” guy, as a co-writer on the project. In point of fact, the movie is being mentioned as a spiritual ancestor of their previous work in the 2001 release, Wet Hot American Summer. Fans of that cult classic in particular are going to be thrilled with this movie, but the rest of us should love it as well. Members of The State and Team Apatow working together on any project makes it worthy of our attention. (David Mumpower/BOP)
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