Following a string of similar-seeming, raunchy, R-rated flicks, this one offers something that the others lack: sensitivity. Wheeler (Sean William Scott) and Danny (Paul Rudd) are salesmen promoting “Minotaur” – an energy drink – to middle school kids. Their slogan is, “Say no to drugs, say yes to Minotaur.” But Danny’s “happy-face” mood changes the day Beth (Elizabeth Banks) says “no” to his proposal. After a bout of let’s-get-arrested behavior, Wheeler and Danny find themselves sentenced to 150 hours of community service as “Big Brothers” to two strange kids. One is Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, best known as “McLovin” in “Superbad”), a would-be dragonslayer/fairy living in a fantasy world. The other is his complete opposite, a snot-nose mini-rapper named Ronnie (Bobb’e J. Thompson), who’s badly in need of a good spanking, and whose hilariously smart-alec performance steals the movie. While the dialogue abounds in F, C, and A-words (and any others you can think of), the movie also has a story, and it has heart, something that Banks’s last picture, “Zach and Miri Make a Porno,” lacked. As their community service hours dwindle, Wheeler and Danny’s love for these kids grows, and their genuinely good intentions pull on your heart-strings. The brightly written material highlights the characters instead of the usual cheap sex gags. You might think going in that this smart little comedy couldn’t land more than one tiara, but you’d be wrong – it’s Three and a half tiaras in disguise.
