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Step Brothers

Buzz says:   MPAA Rating: R
Current Showtimes: No showtimes available

Immature, preposterous, and fitfully funny, Step Brothers is a strong, yet disappointingly familiar, step forward for Will Ferrell and company. After Semi-Pro tanked at the box office earlier this year, and Walk Hard was a similar disappointment over the holiday season, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly have been in need of a project to pull them out of their mild career slumps. Step Brothers, directed by Adam McKay (a frequent Ferrell confidant, as he directed Anchorman and Talladega Nights) does the trick successfully, as the result is often quite funny, albeit a bit uneven at times.

Ferrell and Reilly star as Brennan Huff and Dale Doback, two men who are nearing their forties and still live at home and are without jobs. When Brennan’s mom (Mary Steenburgen) and Dale’s dad (Richard Jenkins) meet and fall in love, Brennan and Dale are forced to live under the same roof, much to their chagrin. As Brennan and Dale immediately form a dislike of one another, their parents become increasingly frustrated that their children are middle-aged and cannot support themselves. Dale only cares about his drum set, and Brennan spends his days lying on the couch pleasuring himself.

The script, written by Ferrell and McKay (Reilly also gets story credit) is just as random as one would expect, with strong laughs only occasionally peppered with jokes that completely fall flat. While this team’s other efforts have been PG-13 rated fare, Step Brothers is a hard R, with jokes involving male genitals (yes, you see them), constant profanity, and incest being woven into the film’s narrative. Most of the risqué jokes pay off in the best of ways, and I found myself laughing very heartily on many an occasion throughout the film. Just listening to Oscar-winning actress Mary Steenburgen scream, “WHAT THE F**KING F**K!?!” was reason enough for me to believe in the R rating. The only problem with such a rating is that Ferrell’s typical audience is younger males who will not be allowed entrance into the film, so such a rating could potentially hurt the movie at the box office.

The performances are strong all around. With Ferrell doing the same type of film (another sports comedy, anyone?) over and over, it’s nice to see him stepping marginally out of the box. Reilly also holds his own against Ferrell’s comedic skills. The supporting cast deserves mention as well, with Adam Scott (The Aviator) playing Ferrell’s douche bag of a brother with great sleaze and Kathryn Hahn (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) playing his sexually frustrated horn dog wife who wants nothing more than to roll Dale up into a ball and put him…well…you’ll just have to see the movie to find out. Even Steenburgen and Jenkins, two high regarded thespians, seem to have fun with the silly material that they have been given.

Step Brothers is very funny, yet it is still nothing remarkable or extremely memorable. It feels as though the filmmakers took the groundbreaking randomness of Anchorman and re-formed it to fit into this movie, only adding in some nudity and swearing to give Step Brothers a harder edge. This is not really a bad thing, as the film’s humor will undoubtedly please fans of Ferrell and McKay’s other partnerships, yet it is a care of been there, done that. I laughed (a lot, actually), yet I couldn’t help but feel like I was experiencing cinematic déjà vu. I’m glad Ferrell is not doing another sports comedy, and his character in Step Brothers is certainly different than that of Ron Burgundy, yet the ambiance of the movie and the jokes were oddly too familiar. Still, if you’re looking for some good, raunchy laughs, definitely spend an evening with these Step Brothers.