Step Brothers
“Step Brothers” is a ragged, plodding, one-joke comedy from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay that’s destined to pad out the DVD shelves in frat houses until it’s forgotten entirely in a couple of years. Ferrell and McKay, who collaborated on “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights,” have clearly hit a point of diminishing returns. McKay is holding Ferrell back. Even the forgettable “Semi-Pro” gave Ferrell more to do, because at least he was playing an adult with hard-won eccentricities. In “Step Brothers,” Ferrell and John C. Reilly star as 40-year-olds who live with their parents and cling creepily to adolescence. It’s a narrow and obvious concept that the newspaper comic strip “Big Nate” recently executed with more panache. And McKay never takes it past the embryonic stage, asking Ferrell and Reilly to behave like 14-year-olds trapped inside craggy, saggy bodies. With their love for drum sets, karate chops and nudie magazines, they fulfill a lazy fantasy of perpetual childhood. And they’re so similar that it hardly matters which actor gets which line. Meanwhile, the role of their chief antagonist, Ferrell’s younger brother, is badly miscast. He’s supposed to be a conventional alpha male, but Adam Scott, with his compact build, beady eyes and Crispin Glover hairdo, is far weirder than he should be. You will laugh at “Step Brothers”: McKay still knows how to deliver a punch line or a sight gag. But the chuckles aren’t an expression of joy; they’re a reflex.
LISTEN: Step Brothers
“But the chuckles aren’t an expression of joy; they’re a reflex.”
You are so right. This movie was nothing more than a vehicle for one-liners about men who refuse to grow up. My $10 dollars could have been better spent.
cc
22 Aug 08 at 3:22 pm