Movieline's Hollywood Life
"Jon Heder gives an enormously winning performance as the geeky, self-effacing parking meter man who gains confidence under the tutelage of the conniving Billy Bob Thornton." 09/01/2006 p.101Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "Thornton is fiendishly funny, lacing his charm with a cruelty that spares no one....Thornton and Heder keep you howling." 10/05/2006 p.78 Sight and Sound
"Jon Heder is oddly sweet both as the put-upon Roger and the more dashing later version....There is effective comic creation here..." 03/01/2007 p.74 Ultimate DVD
3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he cast winningly handle those two humour essentials -- love and violence." 08/01/2007 p.124 Reel.com 8 of 10
Jon Heder is no longer sporting frizzy hair and moon boots and breathing through his mouth; he's Roger, the shy meter maid (man?) in Todd Phillips' wickedly funny School for Scoundrels. And if anything, he's an even bigger nerd than Napoleon Dynamite. At least Napoleon has an over-abundance of self-confidence...As long as the movie stays focused on the competition between Roger and Dr. P, it is hilarious. Less a fight between stags, this is the dust-up that ensues when a bunny rabbit throws down against the wolf that wants to devour him and takes advantage of the resulting surprise. Elmer Fudd could have explained it to Dr. P: You have to watch out for those wascally wabbits, especially after you've made them hopping mad. - Pam Grady
The Village Voice 8 of 10
The latest from Old School director Todd Phillips updates the 1960 original (which was based on Stephen Potter's series of how-to-get-ahead novels) about a man of little confidence who enrolls in a class he believes will teach him self- reliance; it's Bad Santa meets Napoleon Dynamite, quite literally...Thornton, who found his nasty niche in Bad Santa only to seem terribly lost in Bad News Bears, doesn't repeat himself here. Dr. P is a classy, cool brand of vile - the demented drill sergeant in a designer suit. And Heder, cast in the role of the invisible man, is fine too. The movie wouldn't work without someone as nondescript as Heder, because you can buy him as a do-nothing, go-nowhere man; he's perfectly, wonderfully forgettable, appropriate for a movie like this. - Robert Wilonsky
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