School For Scoundrels

So does anybody remember Jon Heder? He used to be a thing right? Napolean Dynamite, Blades of Glory, Benchwarmers, these were all movies that actually were some of my favorites growing up. One of those movies that I remember as "great Jon Heder films" when I was younger was this one, School For Scoundrels. I remember it more just because I enjoyed watching it with my friends and we were big Jon Heder fans. However, coming back 11 years later, I suddenly really don't want to go back and re-watch any of those movies again, especially after re-watching this one.

School for Scoundrels follows the story of Roger (played by Jon Heder). Now the movie portrays Roger as a loser with no social skills and no prospects. He's a meter maid with no self confidence. He's basically Napolean Dynamite if he grew up, moved to New York and barely learned how to talk to people.

In all reality though, Roger is just one depressing guy. Like I get that the movie is a comedy and that depressing guys like this can be portrayed as funny at times, but damn, I just cringe when I look at Roger. His house is full of self help books, he can't keep a kid to be his little brother in the big brother program, absolutely everyone takes advantage of him, I wouldn't be surprised if this movie had an alternate ending where Roger ends up jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge they portrayed him so depressingly.

One day after getting advice from his buddy David Cross (he has a real name but I have no idea who Cross was playing in this movie so I just called him David Cross) to go to a class on how to get self confidence and be successful. He goes to the class and there he finds a group of losers just like him. And it's actually really funny the number of funny comedians are in this class but have absolutely no lines. Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper) is in this class. Aziz Ansari is in this class and gets one line about a swirly at one point in the movie. Andre from The League is in this movie. Matt Walsh (that guy in every comedy who is just the weird guy in everything he does), and Horatio Sanz are also in the film. Unfortunately, with a group like this with that many funny people, they add absolutely nothing to the script as far as jokes go. Some of them are extras in the feud to come, but they really don't add much to the movie, which is kind of depressing.

But the real conflict is the teacher of the class, Dr. P (played by Billy Bob Thornton).

You've met this character before. He's the condescending asshole who has all the knowledge and everyone idolizes despite him treating them like shit. He and his henchman Lesher (played by Michael Clarke Duncan) run this class in order to help these hopeless losers become successful.

Now here's the thing about Billy Bob Thornton (or BBT as I call him) in this film. He's REALLY phoning it in. I never realized this as a kid because I hadn't seen what BBT can do, but he is really phoning this one in. He doesn't look interested at all and while he's still the most talented person in this movie and probably delivers the most lines I chuckled at, he just doesn't give much to this film.

Michael Clarke Duncan was actually pretty funny and actually gave something to this film. However, the script was written so badly that his character Lesher was just a creepy muscle who I guess rapes some of the students of the class? I regret that I remember laughing at that at one point...

Some hijinxs happen during the course of the class like a paintball game where its a free-for-all and everyone just shoots Jon Heder in the balls. I'm not totally sure what Dr. P is supposed to be teaching them because I'll be honest, these guys are so incredibly stupid and Dr. P is so clearly giving them bad information but passes it off like it's gonna get them laid. Now you might be saying that Dr. P is just taking advantage of these guys, but that's not really the case at all. So it makes me think that BBT's character is also just a loser but he's not nearly as much of a loser as the guys in his class. He's able to take advantage of them in a way that anybody really could with a slight crazy/murderous twist, and ends up getting paid pretty well for it. Again, I wish I could say that was the plot but it takes itself so seriously that it just doesn't really work well, especially for BBT and Jon Heder's relationship.

I don't know whose bright idea it was to pit Napolean Dynamite up against Bad Santa but ask yourself, who do you think is going to win in that scenario? It's going to be bad Santa. I've never really been a huge BBT fan, but even I know he has a whole hell lot more charisma than Jon Heder does and with the exception of a slip up the antagonist is bound to have at the end of the film, he beats Roger at every step throughout the game of wits that eventually builds up between the two when Roger magically starts learning from Dr. P's so basic its stupid and not even useful class.

This was honestly just a really bad pairing. I think that both these guys have given funny performances in other movies and even in the case of Jon Heder, I do believe there is talent between the two of them.

But for some reason there just wasn't the relationship built up between these two that I've seen in other movies like this one.

And speaking of relationships, there's also kind of a romance in this movie I guess?

Yeah Roger has a crush on his neighbor, an Australian grad student by the name of Amanda (played by Jacinda Barrett).

I get the feeling there was supposed to be more romantic comedy elements to this movie than there actually was but you can see some of the cliches of romantic comedy in this film from the very beginning but it lacks all the build up and really satisfying parts romantic comedies require. Jon Heder and Jacinda Barrett are cute together... I guess but there's not any real chemistry between the two.

And this might be a spoiler but at a certain point Dr. P puts his sights on Amanda and tries to steal her from Roger. This follows a lot of the same cliches when you've got two guys fighting over the same girl but School For Scoundrels takes in a lot of directions that are actually kind of creepy and dark.

Yeah sure, there are a lot of moments where Dr. P messes with his life and creates mistrust between Roger and Amanda by framing him in some messed up stuff, but then there's the moments where Dr. P really isn't doing anything and Roger is digging his own grave.

This movie is based off of a British film from the 60s oddly enough and they take a scene on a tennis court from that movie. In that scene, Dr. P does absolutely nothing malicious and Roger is a complete asshole. And it's not like he's being an asshole that Amanda would like, he's a jealous asshole through and through and on top of the fact that we didn't really know this guy to begin with, it really doesn't make the character anymore relatable when he's just an asshole for no reason and Amanda has no business falling in love with him in the end which you know she is.

Yeah BBT is revealed to be a liar, but that doesn't make Roger any less creepy. And by the end of it I just realized that this is a horribly written movie.

You've got a lot of good actors in this movie, a lot of really funny people, and yet the movie falls flat on its face. It's not nearly as funny as I used to think it was, and in many moments, its either mean spirited or just cringe worthy.

The only other moment that I thought this movie was at least a little bit funny was whenever Sarah Silverman was on screen as Amanda's asshole roommate...

And I can't stand Sarah Silverman... however, I kind of wish this movie was just Sarah Silverman roasting Jon Heder. That at least would have made me laugh maybe a quarter of the time as opposed to the very little I laughed at this movie.

Oh and Ben Stiller is in this movie... I just finished it and I already kind of forgot. It's a very small part, I'm not even sure why his character was in the movie at all...

But overall, School For Scoundrels makes me a little bit sad because it makes me concerned over the stuff I thought was funny as a kid. I think just being able to go see a PG-13 movie that was pretty on the cusp was a big deal for me, any kind of raunchy or just shock humor was funny to me. But looking back now, I can only say that this movie is not very good at all. Don't waste your time with this film, it feels a lot longer than an hour and a half and there are a lot better movies out there.

But what did you think of School for Scoundrels? Did you see it back in 2006? Did you like it? Do you think Jon Heder should have a come back? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog as well as live tweets I do occasionally while I watch them.

I did not know that this movie was based off a 60s British film. Here's the tennis scene they borrowed from the original film. Gotta say, this movie looks just as terrible. Enjoy!