RUTHERFORD ON FILM: ‘School for Scoundrels’: Nice Guys Turning to Scammer to Become Successful Jerks
By Tony RutherfordHuntington News Network Critic
Huntington, WV (HNN) -- No more Mr. Nice Guy; no more Mr. Clean. We’ve watched the retaliation of “nerds” and “average” dudes, now comes the 15 minutes for struggling needy “nice guys” to learn lessons in becoming successful jerks.
Call it a “guy comedy” or an instruction manual for converting them into successful “babe magnets,” “School for Scoundrels” begins by plucking a day from the life of Roger (Jon Heder), an insecure meter reader ticket dude. He loses his money, shirt and sneakers when he prints out a citation in a seedy neighborhood. He falls victim to foot in mouth disease as a pretty gal speaks to him near an elevator. At the gym he learns his "Little Brother" in the "Big Brothers, Big Sisters" program dumped him.
As the tears silently flow, he's told to call a special doctor who can turn his life around --- for $5,000 that is.
Enter Billy Bob Thornton (Dr. P ) and a bulky Michael Clarke Duncan as Lesher, the little professors’ muscle in teaching a roomful of losers how to be cool macho jerks and attain success in the business world and especially with women.
Solidly lampooning the self-help, get in touch with your feelings craze, "Scoundrels" takes the presumable assumption that if "self" is screwed up, you want to rely on someone else who's not as screwed up.
Except that the teacher has a scamming rep, which exploits the trusty students with initial confrontation “assignment” that rise to absurdity.
Director Todd (“Old School,” “Road Trip,” “Starsky & Hutch”) Phillips relies more on "politically incorrect" than visual raunchiness, groping initial laughs from the "confrontation now" command that leads to a nurse rubbing jello into an elderly patient’s face and more than one aggressive weakling finds his head in a toilet boil.
Visual gags (graffiti on a dog!) and verbal snaps pepper a flick dominated by a series of short sketches nicely intertwined but fumbling as often as they score. The tennis racket sequence earns a good laugh quotient along with the paintball assault and Roger's well timed panic attacks. OK, the stolen sneakers and mom scene gets thumbs up.
While this lesson on why women love confident, even rude, jerky males has relationship fireworks, the script then slides into the teacher stealing Roger’s new found gal friend. But, this lengthy segment could nearly be a sequel. Director Phillips had many more creative avenues filled with laughter by simply sticking with awkward dudes learning to be macho jerks.
He tries too hard to bring on dude bonding in a “Wedding Crashers” way, which veers far from inept, limp, easily persuaded persona of the $5,000 class taught by a haughty snob. The concept would have played better with more of the newly cool, newly sunglassed, and no more saying “I’m sorry” cool dudes blundering and triumphing. The stuff about Dr. P moving in on Roger’s gal and progressively upping the rules of engagement nearly flips the breezy zingers into a serious exercise on jealousy and bullying.
“Scoundrels” works for two third of its running time, then, flounders; it’s still worth watching, but the concluding endless twisted romantic caper manufactures few of the crisp, healthy grins and hearty, spontaneous laughs of the earlier potions.