Step Brothers

Step Brothers is another collaboration between Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. The difference with this movie and Talladega Nights is that this time Judd Apatow (Superbad, Knocked Up) is producing and Ferrell co-wrote the movie with Adam McKay (SNL, FunnyorDie.com) who also gets directing credit. I did not really even want to see this movie based on the original trailers as it seemed to be another in whats becoming the long line of Will Ferrell groaners. After hearing good word of mouth and being dragged to the movie on a boring Sunday, I must say this is truly a very funny movie.

Brennan (Ferrell) and Dale (Reilly) are two 40 year old, unemployed losers who are still living at home with their parents (Mary Steenbergen, Richard Jenkins). At a medical conference the parents meet up, hook up, and end up getting married. Thus making the guys... Step Brothers. While the plot certainly isn't the highpoint of this movie, the improvisation between Ferrell and Reilly steals the show. It's hard to believe there was really a script with dialogue pre-written as both comedians do an amazing job playing off each other and have great chemistry. The jokes are very R rated and immature but fit very well with the flow of the movie. Dale and Brennan don't get along at first but find a common enemy in Brennan's younger, and much more successful brother Derek. Derek is the polar opposite of Dale and Brennan as he has a wife, 2 kids, 500k a year salary, and a range rover. One of the funniest scenes in the movie is when the family is singing an acapella version of Guns N Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine."

Derek convinces the parents to sell their house so that they can retire and set sail around the world on their yacht, this of course would mean Dale and Brennan would have to enter the real world and get their own job and place. They go on a series of interviews which are highly entertaining and even feature a cameo from Seth Rogen (Pineapple Express, Superbad). As you can guess things don't go according to plan and hilarity ensues. The movie has so many great moments that weren't put into the trailer, probably because of the adult nature of the humor. The film also narrowly avoids the trap that most comedies in this genre fall into where the main character realizes the mistakes he has been making and spends 30 minutes of the film trying to right the wrong. There is a section of the movie like that where the brothers both go out on their own and are successful as adults in the real world and must reunite to bring the parents back together. Fortunately the scenes are well done and the movie doesn't have any real points where its dragging on.

Overall, Step Brothers is a win for Ferrell as his stock was on a slow decline after Semi Pro. The movie will not hold up as funniest movie of the summer as Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express will be most likely battling for that title, but Step Brothers is a great comedy with some good acting and definitely worth checking out at your local matinee.

8/10