MOVIE: Step Brothers

Movie Reviewed by The Evil Dr Sanchez, Esq.

Editor's Rating:  

(2 /10)

Starring: Will Ferrel and John C Reilly

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Coming together for their first feature since Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Will Ferrel and John C Reilly poke fun at late 30-somethings who are still living at home in Step Brothers.

The comedic duo play Brennan Huff and Dale Doback respectively, two immature losers whose cushy lives are threatened when their single parents (played by Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins) marry after a whirlwind romance.

Co-written and directed by Saturday Night Live scribe Adam McKay (who also co-wrote Talladega Nights), Step Brothers is pretty much what you would expect from this successful team; facile humour and men behaving badly. Usually that would work for me, but for some reason, not this time.

Sitting in the preview audience I was trying to work out whether it was just me being left unamused but after a few initial laughs, the rest of the theatre became pretty much silent. And yes, I have a theory as to why this is. Like their SNL cohort Mike Myers (who has also faced a recent backlash), Ferrell and O’Reilly are resting on the same tried and true gags. Sure they take it a bit further this time by dragging out some testicles (look out for that bit) but you can see the jokes coming a mile away.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that Will Ferrell can be genius (see the ‘I’m in a glass case of emotion’ bit in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy), just not in this film. Having had his last offering, Semi-Pro (which has been described as ‘cringeworthy’) go straight to DVD in this country perhaps it’s time for Will to go back to the drawing board, wipe it clean and start again.

Then again, if you can still handle more of the same Farrellesque comedy, maybe Step Brothers will not be lost on you. If you do go and see it though, one advises not to make the mistake of upsizing your popcorn for the low, low price of $1 without seeing the size of the ‘upsized’ bucket or you will end up, as I did with this film, having more than your fill.