Though the previews for “School for Scoundrels” were extremely promising, that promise was not kept.
With an amazing comic ensemble cast including Ben Stiller, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Cross, Luis Guzmán, Todd Louiso and Billy Bob Thornton, there is no reason why this movie should not be very funny.
The premise of the movie begins with its central character, Roger (John Heder), who is a stereotypical loser.
He works as a meter maid, gets bullied wherever he goes, and his apartment is riddled with self-help books.
He gets a tip about a class for losers from his friend Ian (Cross), who used to be a loser himself, but is now a new man thanks to the secret class taught by its professional scoundrel of a teacher, Mr. P (Thornton) and his large and forceful assistant, Lesher (Duncan).
Together they set out, in a very brutal manner, to teach the class how to re-discover themselves as stronger more confident individuals. For Roger, the class is so successful he even starts to win the heart of his incredibly attractive Australian neighbor Amanda (Jacinda Barrett).
Everything is going great until Mr. P decides to take Roger’s girlfriend for himself. Roger has to beat the master of manliness at his own game if he wants to salvage a relationship with Amanda.
Along the way he receives aid from the certifiable Lonnie (Ben Stiller), who was once a student of Mr. P himself, and went through a similar ordeal.
The film is not without a few great laughs. There are some scenes that are simply hilarious. These mostly consist of Mr. P giving his class an extreme dose of reality as he teaches them how to reach out and take what is theirs.
Once a week, e teaches these men to be forceful through rather unorthodox techniques, including a paintball war in the same woods and an exercise where Roger is told to incite a confrontation with the bully at work.
Other truly funny events evolve from the tension between Roger and Mr. P after he steals his girlfriend. These few funny moments cannot salvage this film. Instead, it is hindered with several problems. The largest is that its creators could not decide what they wanted the movie to be.
Movies should have room to experiment within any given genre, but only when said experimentation furthers the storyline. “School for Scoundrels” had elements of comedy, drama and romance movies, but they are not meshed well. Instead of the riotous movie viewers want, they get a mildly funny, ridiculous love story is that viewers, expecting to be rolling on the floor with laughter, will be disappointed with.
There are moments when the movie takes itself too seriously and then in the next instant throws the audience into insanely ridiculous events.
The members of the ‘class,’ for instance, begin as very real representations of people who lack self-confidence, but transform so dramatically that they are silly to the point that they can’t be taken seriously and aren’t funny.
Roger is suddenly so confident that he is able to spar with the teacher after only a few short weeks of class. If it had been approached more like the movie “Dodge Ball,” with jokes and scenarios that are purely comical rather than realistic in any way, it would have fared much better.
“School for Scoundrels” has great potential, but falls short in reality.
Though it initially starts to seem amusing, it slowly loses steam, leaving some audience members unsatisfied.
