School for Scoundrels (2006)

I love this movie so much

The Worst Film Ever

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This film has two things going for it--the opening song and the final credits. If you were a politically correct rainbow person before watching it, guarantee you'll end up detesting most races of color and men in general. Billy Thornton plays the usual male ass only without the idiot Southern Baptist slant he usually sports. All the other cast members are wasted and the humor is sixth grade level if that. It's all 'been there/done that' humor we've seen for the last 100 years in vaudeville and cinema only without the class or punch. The film is tired before it begins. I think a lot of writers now pool together grabbing bits and pieces of other film scripts pasting them together in hopes of a hit. It's like standing by the office shredder yanking pieces of memos here and there to create something you think might be new. Either that or they have computers writing scripts culling from all former comedies within parameters for something original. Sad, waste of money, film and time on performers' and viewers' parts.

Jon Heder, dialing down the gawkiness of his breakthrough role in Napoleon Dynamite, stars as Roger, a spineless New York City meter maid prone to panic attacks and being picked on. He can't even muster the nerve to ask out the girl next door, Amanda, a warm-hearted Australian. Roger hits bottom when he's dumped (again) as a big brother, leading him to a secretive, cash-only class taught by Thornton's Dr. P, a self-styled self-help guru who shows weak men how to unleash their "inner lion." This films has an interesting story and premise but isn't all that great and it seems very usual compared to other films. At times it seems like it doesn't know what type of comedy it wants to be. Is it a black comedy that isn't dark enough? Or a dumb comedy that isn't stupid enough, or a gross-out comedy that isn't yucky enough? Or is it really just a romance comedy that isn't sweet enough? It starts out as a silly comedy then turns into a romantic comedy and ends that way. The film could have been much better but it wasn't so bad. Not very funny either. Decent and watchable film.

By this time we all knew Jon Heder from his famed performance in Napoleon Dynamite. Now when this came out it put Heder in a whole new perspective because of the romance edge to this movie. I think that a lot of people did not like this movie, but it is a little underrated in my book. It does deliver the laughs more than once and you will find yourself mildly entertained once again by the writing of Todd Philips and Scot Armstrong. This was actually a very decent comedy with that romance factor added in as well. Jon Heder shows great on screen chemistry with Billy Bob Thornton as they both one-up each other to win over this girl. A very outrageous comedy that is worth seeing at least once.8/10

Imagine the poor nerd-like Roger, who is humiliated on a daily basis by his co-workers. He is such a pathetic individual that even the Big Brother group he mentors want to get rid of him. What to do? How about enrolling in a school that will give him the skills that will help him overcome his own shortcomings. For that, he goes to Dr. P's school where supposedly he will learn, among other things, how to overcome his inability to deal with the tormentors he faces everywhere and then get to have great sex that has been denied to him.The premise of this comedy must have sounded great to the people behind the project. Todd Phillips, after all, is a major talent that has done much better. Writing the screenplay together with Scot Armstrong, and loosely based on the original English film of the same title, one would have expected a laughter riot. After all, the casting seemed made in heaven.The pairing of Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder, should have yielded an edgier comedy, but alas, it was not meant to be. One cannot blame the actors involved because the material given for them to act, doesn't hold many surprises. There are isolated parts that are funny and work. Most of the time the gags feel flat.Even though the end product is not what one expected, "School of Scoundrels" has its moments and it could be a film to watch with friends if the group is into a party mood.