School for ScoundrelsBILLY Bob Thornton does a watered-down version of his belligerent Bad Santa <$>character, while Jon Heder does an even nerdier version of the role that made him famous in Napoleon Dynamite, in School for Scoundrels.The clash of those two opposing forces provides a few laughs for a little while. But then director Todd Phillips, following up his gleefully juvenile Old School<$>, can’t decide what he wants his movie to be — which makes you wonder why you bothered staying with him for the duration, writes Christy Lemire.<$>

Thornton stars as a wiry, enigmatic figure known only as Dr. P, who teaches a class for insecure men. He encourages them (with the help of a relentlessly abusive Michael Clarke Duncan) to be a lion, to take what’s theirs. He berates and hazes them, which frequently results in his students being hit / kicked / shot with paintball pellets in the groin.

Heder co-stars as Roger, an unbelievably milquetoast Manhattan meter maid who enrols in the class after being rejected by yet another kid in the Big Brother programme where he volunteers. (David Cross has a small role as the friend who recommends the course, but his substantial comedic talents mostly go to waste, as do those of the charmingly crass Sarah Silverman and the versatile Luis Guzman.)

The course itself is a clever idea, the misfit students sufficiently vivid in their social challenges. One guy (Matt Walsh) has yet to move out of his parents’ basement; another (Saturday Night Live <$>alum Horatio Sanz, who’s never funny) is tired of his wife walking all over him. And in the beginning, when they’re all exposing their weaknesses and struggling awkwardly to overcome them, the film does have an insane energy about it.

But then the script (which Phillips co-wrote once again with Scot Armstrong, based on a 1960 film of the same name) veers into oppressively mean territory. Then it drags with repetitive one-upmanship. Then it turns into a typically cheesy romantic comedy, complete with a climactic mad dash through the airport. And after several false endings, School for Scoundrels <$>feels like it will just never let out.

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