Review: Step Brothers


Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly play two developmentally-challenged (i.e. Juvenile and lazy man-children), middle-aged losers still living at home with clearly no desire to change that arrangement. Ferrell’s single mum is the nice, beautiful and loving Mary Steenburgen, whilst Reilly’s single dad is the long-suffering Richard Jenkins. The two parents hook up, decide to move in together, and instant, violent (sophomoric) hatred is formed between the two sons forced to room together. The two eventually find a common enemy in Ferrell’s smarmy, more successful brother Adam Scott. Seth Rogen has a pretty funny cameo as one of the interviewers the guys meet when forced to seek employment (resulting in one of the funnier fart gags I’ve come across in a while).


The team behind “Talladega Nights” strike out in this largely unfunny 2008 Adam McKay misfire. The problem is that Ferrell and Reilly have their best moments when their characters start to actually bond over a common enemy (Scott) and similar interests. Why is that a problem? Because the film mostly has them as infantile, unlikeable enemies for much of the film, and most of these scenes aren’t very amusing. In fact they are just plain mean-spirited and unfunny. The whole thing is pretty unlikeable (same issue I had with the similar “Mama’s Boy”, starring Ferrell’s “Blades of Glory” co-star Jon Heder), as are the characters.


Some of it works, a lot of it doesn’t, and what works isn’t even very memorable or inspired. But hey, if you wanna hear Steenburgen say ‘fuck’, here’s your movie. This is seriously profane stuff btw, and features a hopefully prosthetic shot of Ferrell’s nut-sack being used on a drum kit! You’ve been warned!. Me, I was mostly bored, aside from the amusingly horrendous Billy Joel covers band towards the end (one of the few times “SNL” alleged comedian Horatio Sanz has made me laugh).


Rating: C

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more