Step Brothers

This movie was atrocious. It actually had the makings of a pretty good movie. Will Ferrell is of course one of the best current funnymen, and John C. Reily is a very good actor (though I prefer him in dramatic roles. Adam Mckay is certainly no newcomer to comedy. He's been writing and directing on Saturday Night Live for the past 10 years, and was behind some of Ferrell's best movies. Unfortunately, the movie falls flat.

Brennan Huff (Ferrell) and Dale Doback (Reilly) are two emotionally stunted men in their late thirties still living at home with their respective single parents. Conflict arises when their parents get together and Brennan and Dale now have to live under one roof. They spend two hours acting like 10 year olds. All the expected conflicts are there, from not touching each others things, to having to share a bedroom.

The core story here is the struggle for these two man-children to leave the nest and finally start their adult lives. This could be really funny as a short, or it could be endearing as a feature, but their attempt to stretch this joke for an entire movie simply does not work. Don't get me wrong, there are certainly a few funny scenes. Brennan and Dale spend a very funny montage interviewing for jobs- going into the interviews together. It's too bad that these funny scenes were short, and there just weren't many of them.

In an odd, and I think misguided choice, the movie was rated R. This is clearly because of the excessive language peppered throughout. Aside from this, there was nothing at all offensive. So by including completely unnecessary and often times out of place language, they cut off much of the potential demographic.

I think Ferrell should try revisiting his touching abilities that he demonstrated in Stranger Than Fiction. And I really miss the John C. Reilly of Gangs of New York. Any way you look at it, Step Brothers was just a miss.

1/5