School for Scoundrels

Loosely inspired by a long-forgotten 45-year-old British comedy, this new and improved Americanized, energized version from director Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip) gets an A+ for laughs and genuine comic smarts. In short, the plot finds Napoleon Dynamite competing with Bad Santa for the same girl when a down-on-his-luck loser (Jon Heder) enrolls in a class designed to make him a winner, only to be out-conned every step of the way by his lecherous teacher (Billy Bob Thornton) who has his sights set firmly on the same pair of legs as his impressionable student. Consistently and uncontrollably hilarious—at least some of the time—it's like a dirty rotten cross between Heder's aforementioned Napoleon Dynamite and the ultimate con-game movie, The Sting. The script provides plenty of fodder for Heder and Thornton to go at each other, and considering the stereotypes that usually populate innocuous fare like this, the supporting cast is pretty damn fine, and Jacinda Barrett might just be the best reason to go down, uh , under we've come across in a long, LONG time. Overall, School for Scoundrels is worth enrolling in for a couple of hours. It's surprisingly clever and refreshing entertainment that deserves a place at the head of the comedy class. Nothing more, but fortunately nothing less.