Movie & Reviews
The man-boy schtick gets tiresome in this Reilly-Ferrell vehicle.
By Nick DeRatto
Jul 30, 2008 - 1:46:19 PM

Comic actors often turn towards dramatic roles as a way to not only avoid getting typecast, but also to show that they are more than a one-trick pony. Jim Carrey made the transition successfully with roles like The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as did Adam Sandler with Punch-Drunk Love and Reign Over Me.

Others, like Will Ferrell, prove that they are more than happy playing the same character over and over, as he does in Step Brothers.

Taking a premise that has been used just slightly more than Ferrell’s man-boy schtick, Step Brothers is another story about two single parents who get married, forcing their children to learn how to live together. Here, however, the children in question are 40, not five or six – though, it’s impossible to tell the difference.

That’s why the movie already starts to fall apart before it even begins.

Ferrell and John C. Reilly play Brennan Huff and Dale Doback, two terminally unemployed adults (in the very loosest sense of the word) who both still live with their parents and are forced to live together when their parents get married. At first enemies, the pair finally becomes friends but their immature antics eventually drive their parents to divorce and they are forced to act like adults in an effort to get their parents back together.

On the positive side, the movie is hilarious – if you are a fan of Ferrell’s and Reilly’s type of humor. Both are perfectly suited for their roles, which shouldn’t be surprising considering they are able to stay comfortably within roles that Reilly has developed over his past few movies and Ferrell has developed throughout nearly his entire career. As in Talladega Nights, the two play off of each other well and deliver plenty of hilarious dialogue and slapstick moments, as long as you aren’t looking for any kind of deep or smart humor.

The humor, though, isn’t quite enough to make up for the paper-thin plot. It’s not the fact that Ferrell and Reilly play 40-year-olds still living with their parents; given the economy, that probably isn’t too far of a stretch. However, it’s far beyond my scope of understanding to believe that anyone would put up with their grown children destroying the house and acting like a couple of four-year-olds. Maybe I’m just naïve.

As parents Dr. Robert Doback and Nancy Huff, Richard Jenkins and Mary Steenburgen bring little to their roles. While Jenkins is fairly believable as Dale’s father, at least when he forces the two to look for jobs, Steenburgen is awful as Brennan’s mother, overacting much of the time and looking uncomfortable nearly all of the time.

Fans of Ferrell and Reilly will most likely eat this film up for its humor, but it will be a tough sell for anyone else. Given a different premise, Step Brothers could have at least been a slightly above-average comedy.

Step Brothers has a runtime of 95 minutes and is rated R for crude and sexual content and language. It was viewed at Carmike 10.

nderatto@villagepublishing.com | 751-0421

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