Role Models, David Wain‘s third feature as a director and co-writer, may be the first of the erstwhile The State member‘s films to actually feel fully-formed. Wain‘s first two films, Wet Hot American Summer and last year‘s The Ten, felt more like collections of sketches and improvisational quips left over from sessions with his cohorts in The State and Stella, his other cancelled sketch show, than classic, three-act-structured movies. These aren‘t necessarily bad qualities when dealing with humor. In fact, both The Ten and Wet Hot American Summer are much funnier overall than his latest, but the softening of content is traded for a comforting semblance of plot.

As with his past two efforts, Wain‘s latest is top-lined by the invaluable Paul Rudd, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Wain. He plays Danny, a spokesperson for Minotaur Energy Drink who spends his days telling teenagers not to do drugs with a fluffy Minotaur dancing behind him. Inside that jolly Minotaur costume is Wheeler (Seann William Scott), a co-worker who wants nothing more than to be Dan‘s friend and get laid. This comes as a surprise as it seems that Danny has no friends save for his girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks), and even she is beginning to tire of his wasting-my-life hissy fits. It‘s when Beth breaks it off that Dan loses it and tells a cafeteria filled with teenagers how awesome drugs are and how life sucks. That‘s before he mounts the Minotaur Mobile upon a statue of a horse.

Both Dan and Wheeler are offered some time in jail or 150 days of community service at Sturdy Wings, a Big Brother proxy run by an ex-con (Jane Lynch) with a love for cautionary tales about her days as a coke addict. She also has a psycho-sexual obsession with bagel dogs. Danny gets stuck with Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse of Superbad fame) while Wheeler becomes ward to Ronnie (Bobb‘e J. Thompson). Augie has an obsession with a Lord of the Rings-lite role-playing game; Ronnie has an obsession with breasts.