It’s time to either put up or shut up for Jon Heder of “Napoleon Dynamite” fame. Unfortunately, in the film “School for Scoundrels”, Heder only plays into his typecast nerdy persona that is accented by his slow delivery of lines.
The paltriness he exudes throughout the film is so prominent I felt like I could collect it and sell it somewhere. If I made a profit off of it, maybe I would not feel like I had wasted my time. I’m getting ahead of myself here, let’s back track to the plot.
“School for Scoundrels” presents the story of Roger (Heder), your normal loser type who does not receive respect in any facet of his job as a meter maid. He gets bullied at work and even by those he gives out the tickets to. In one such scene, Roger gets shot at and his clothes are stolen by the stereotypical version of the African-American thug on the streets of New York. Roger even gets ‘dumped’ by his little brother at the local recreation center where he participates in the Big Brother, Big Sister program. After delivering the bad news, Ian (David Cross) suggests Roger attend Dr. P’s (Billy Bob Thorton) exclusive and top-secret class in order to build up his confidence. There he meets up with Diego (Horatio Sanz), Eli played by Todd Louiso, and Walsh (Matt Walsh) who also have their fair share of pathetic circumstances that brought them to Dr. P’s class.
All is not how it seems however, instead of the circle of linked hands and hearts, Thorton’s character, Dr. P. delivers up a sadistic type atmosphere where he toughens up the gang of, what he refers to on a regular basis, ‘retards’. With the aid of his assistant Lesher, played by Michael Clark Duncan, the group goes through exercises of confrontation, an overhaul of their actual personalities, they are encouraged to lie, lie, and lie some more to women, and also forced into a rather ferocious paint ball war in the park.
Despite all of this, Roger rises to the top of his class and suddenly becomes enemy No. 1 in Dr. P’s book. Apparently, in every class Dr. P goes after the top student and uses the techniques he drills into his students head in order to ruin the life of the chosen victim.
Here the character of Amanda (Jacinda Barrett) comes into play. Amanda lives in Roger’s building and is the object of his affection. After Roger discovers Dr. P’s agenda, he is forced to grow some and go head to head in the vigorous competition against Dr. P for Amanda’s attention. With the help of his crew of misfits, the aforementioned classmates, and a previous jilted student, played by Ben Stiller, the game has begun.
Concerning the performances, I was disappointed to discover that the negative outweighed the good. Again, Heder does not reach past his character of Napoleon. I could literally close my eyes when he was on screen and just listen to the dialogue and this brought back bad memories of his infamous foray into geekdom.
Also, while Thorton never fails to deliver, he can easily portray the callous smart-aleck. His character in “Bad Santa” was a burnout and is seemingly opposite of the professional con artist he plays in the film, but they are both rooted in the same vein of the sarcastic jerk. It would just be nice to see Thorton stretch a little as an actor; we all know he can do it. Stiller also returns to the familiar with his character Lonnie. We have seen his whacked out loner before. He did that whole bit a decade ago with “Heavy Weights” and in several other films.
Moreover, the estrogen was few and far between in the film, which is common in this genre of what I call ‘underdog comedy’. Barrett can be very charming, but her character was under-developed and she wound up seeming very boring. Also, the film does a bad job of convincing the audience that Amanda and Roger could possibly be that cute a couple. The chemistry between Heder and Barrett is not there or Barrett and Thorton for that matter. In addition, Amanda’s roommate Becky played by Sarah Silverman only added annoyance to the film’s atmosphere. I’m so tired of seeing Silverman playing the droning witch. Can she not act out anything else?
There were moments of wit and a few laugh out loud moments but I would suggest you skip this film. A flood of excellent movies are coming out next week. Save your money for that. This film is rated PG-13 for language, crude and sexual content, and some violence and can be seen at Carmike 14 Cinemas.

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