Danny (Paul Rudd) hates life. Wheeler (Sean William Scott) loves it. Danny hates his job and is an asshole to everyone. Wheeler loves his job and...is an asshole to everyone. These two superstars are the center of the latest David Wain (The Ten, Wet Hot American Summer) directed comedy, Role Models.

Danny and Wheeler are reps for Minotaur, an energy drink company where their jobs are to basically go around, drink a ton of Minotaur, and tell kids to keep off the drugs. Sounds simple right? Well, catch these guys over-juiced and on a bad day, and you might find their Minotaur truck on the wrong end of your horse statue. There's no cleverness at play here, these two literally crash their truck into a bronze equine sculpture outside of a school. Danny's girlfriend saves the day and helps them avoid prison time by getting them community service enrolled in a big/little brother program.

The movie may seem like it's setting itself up for a run-of-the-mill, been there/done that kind of story, and guess what? It basically is, except what this film lacks in storytelling creativity, it makes up for with heaping piles of laughs. Scott and Rudd play our two leads with improvisational joy and enthusiasm. Supporting player Jane Lynch throws us her usual curve ball of a wholesome and good woman peppered with a dark and seedy past involving cocaine and body sales. And our two lil's Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Bobb'e Thompson deliver all the humor they promised us from the trailer. David Wain has branched out into mainstream filmmaking by making a significantly less wacky film story-wise, but keeping most of his particular brand of humor intact.

Now I don't want to seem too praising of the picture, because it does suffer its slow parts, and not all the jokes hit the nail on the head. The story is very paint by numbers, but after you get past that, you don't care much and you just enjoy the film for its humor. It's nice to see Wain embracing the studio system and bringing his films to a wider audience, and pretty much anything with Rudd and Scott warrants a watch from this reviewer. So yeah, that's my bias. That and I have a soft spot for small black children who say, "Fuck you, Miss Daisy", to Caucasian grownups. It's the little things that keep you going.

Review by: Greg MacLennan

Impoverished Indian teen Jamal has had a rough life. Just as things finally start to turn a corner for our young protagonist as he gets to the last question on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, he is accused of cheating. Jamal is then forced through a grueling interrogation, where we learn how he came upon each answer and what his true motivations are for appearing on the show. I'll leave the synopsis at that, as part of the joy that comes from watching Danny Boyle's (28 Days Later, Trainspotting) latest is watching the story unfold.

Boyle has crafted one of his best films from a truly excellent script from Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty). As I said, the way we are told of Jamal's past via flashback and seeing how the answers to the questions are hidden throughout his life experiences is one of the many joys found in the film. That, coupled with excellent performances across the board, a heavily M.I.A'ed soundtrack, and some spectacular direction and visuals combine to create one of the best cinematic outings of the year. I'm sure we will be hearing something about Slumdog come awards season o'clock. Now some might argue the film manipulates emotion or plays with your sympathy, and I'd argue that Boyle has such a way of crafting his films that it all comes out organically. You never feel forced to feel, you just do, despite some of the scenes clearly being some of the most depressing shit (pun intended for those in the know) you could think of.

Boyle has managed to reinvent himself many a time by always trying out different genres while, at the same time, nailing each and every one of them. This is the film that almost wasn't, and it definitely warrants your attention. So many studios were afraid of this film, and Boyle has been pretty public of how the festival circuit kept this film alive when he thought it was over and done with. Do yourself a favor and check this one out when it hits a screen near you.

Review by: Greg MacLennan

The IMDb synopsis for Max Payne goes like this:

Coming together to solve a series of murders in New York City are a DEA agent, Max Payne, whose family was slain as part of a conspiracy and an assassin, out to avenge her sister's death. The duo will be hunted by the police, the mob, and a ruthless corporation.

Now anyone should be able to gleam at least this much from watching the film. I'm not sure how it happened, or what I was expecting, but between the films apt video game reference via the posters, or the surprisingly visual rich trailers, I half expected something from Max Payne. The video game utilized the bullet time effect seen in movies like the Matrix, and the story of a renegade cop hunting down the people who killed his family seems like an idea beamed straight from the heavens for Jason Statham. But alas, the stars could not align. I'm not sure when, perhaps it was somewhere around minute ten was when I realized I was in for one of the worst films of the year.

You see it's not that it's from The Omen and Flight of the Phoenix director John Moore, although I'm sure he is definitely at least partially to blame. But first time writer Beau Thorne has crafted one of the shallowest, most confusing scripts ever. I think the confusion mainly arises from the lack of any character development or story explanation. The film is basically Max Payne wandering around from place to place, boring you, and then as time rolls on, actually making you giggle. You never care about anyone or anything going in, and even if you did know who these people were or what was going on, I doubt you'd care then either.

The performances don't help much, Mark Walhberg does what he can, but with a supporting cast that include laughable performances from Beau Bridges, Chris O'Donnell, and Mila Kunis, you're left trying to swim with concrete flippers. Also please let this serve as an open letter to Chris "Ludacris" Bridges (No relation to Beau or Jeff), please stop making movies. You were annoying in 2Fast2Furious, you freaked us out in that Vince Vaughn Fred Claus movie, and here you were the first to let the audience know it's okay to laugh at this supposed action drama. Also John Moore, when you have Donal Logue in a movie, please use him.

There are problems beyond all these things, but at this point it's like kicking a dead horse. If you have a morbid curiosity to see just how bad this movie is, don't. Send me $8, and I'll slap you in the face. At least I'll be saving you 100 minutes of your life.

PS - if you stay through the end credits, you get an epilogue that delivers promises of a Max Payne 2, but frankly, that's like making it through a minefield only to be shot in the face by a most pointless bullet.

Review by: Greg MacLennan