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'Step Brothers' reunites Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, who previously collaborated on Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights. This is a better, and funnier, movie than Ferrell's last offering, Semi-Pro, which was a box office flop. But then, Semi-Pro was garbage. It is not as funny as John C Reilly's major comic debut Walk Hard, where he parodied a variety of well-known musical personalities, from Johnny Cash to Roy Orbison. Reilly and Ferrell make a good team, with Reilly actually getting more laughs. However, to find these laughs, one must sift through a mound of comedic refuse. And by this, I mean there are a lot of gags that simply do not work. This is a shamelessly crude and vulgar movie, and that is probably one of its primary selling points. Typically, I am fan of stuff like this, uninhibited and willing to stoop to any level for the sake of humor, but the real test is whether one can do this successfully without appearing desperate and repetitive. This is where 'Step Brothers' ultimately fails; it does not stay fresh, and returns to the same stale material again and again, recycling jokes incessantly until the very end. The story centers on two men in their early 40s, Brennan Huff (Ferrell) and Dale Doback (Reilly), who still live at home with their parents. Brennan's mother Nancy (Mary Steenburgen) meets and marries Dale's father Robert (Richard Jenkins), and subsequently moves in with him. Dale and Brennan end up sharing a room. They initially hate each other, until they discover the things they have in common. One of them is a deep love for John Stamos; the other is a mutual contempt for Derek (Adam Scott), Brennan's smarmy, over-achieving younger sibling, who shows up and quickly begins to steal away Robert's affections. Dale and Brennan are lazy, emotionally immature losers. They are childish in temperament, used to getting their own way, were never forced to take responsibility for themselves. Robert tries to encourage both of them to move out, find girlfriends, and get jobs. Dale and Brennan do not want to see Robert and Nancy split up; they can tell as easily as anybody that they are happy together, and so they are willing to make amends and pursue their independence. The problem is that they just don't know where to start. What careers would they be qualified for? They have poor communication skills, and cannot function properly in the outside world. Heck, they are even bullied and beaten up by local prepubescent kids. They have been spoiled and pampered their whole lives. I have a feeling that Reilly and Ferrell improvised or ad libbed quite a bit in several scenes; at least until the final third or so, where events happen merely for the sake of plot advancement, bringing us to a predictable and formulaic conclusion. Before they are able to reconcile, Brennan and Dale must endure a gauntlet of cruel and outrageous pranks they play on one another. Maybe pranks is not the right word. Brennan knocks Dale unconscious on one occasion and buries him in the backyard, and continues to do so even after he wakes up. Brennan rubs his testicles on the prized drum set Dale told him not to touch. That testicle thing is beyond gross, and a bit involving sleepwalking is totally overdone, but what a zinger Dale delivers when Brennan sings for him and he describes his voice as a cross between Fergie and Jesus. This comparison is amusing by virtue of its inherent absurdity. Kathryn Hahn is a hoot as Alice, Derek's sexually frustrated wife, who aggressively comes on to Dale. Steenburgen and Jenkins are terrific in mostly serious roles that power the film's brief, infrequent moments of sincerity. I was never sure if Dale and Brennan are supposed to be likable; I found them creepy and psychologically disturbed, Brennan more so than Dale. Ferrell fans will be delighted by this, and Reilly has certainly made the transition from solid character actor to comic superstar. email this review to a friend
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