Step Brothers

"Step Brothers"
Adam McKay, 2008

Watching the new comedy "Step Brothers" is as fun as watching two six-year-old special-needs kids run amok. Because, well, that is exactly what we see, though these two kids have the bodies of forty-year-olds, who are played by Will Ferrel and John C. Reilly. The boring and predictable premise is as follows: the step-brothers' exceedingly rich parents meet at a conference and marry, forcing them - they still live at home - to move in to the same house. Havoc ensues when they realize that they share many passions, and when their parents finally force them to step into the real world and find a job. "Step Brothers" is a movie that compels us to ask whether all people should be allowed to be parents, or perhaps whether members of the upper echelon of society should be allowed to inbreed, because that's the only thing that could have produced our two idiot protagonists.

We watch Will Ferrel rub his testicles, or very convincing fake ones, on a drum set. We witness a mob of foul-mouthed students beat up the step-brothers and force them to eat white dog shit. There is an arch-rival, Ferrel's brother who is, of course, a complete douche. There is a falling out between all members of the family and then an inevitable reconciling. But none of this is funny. I chuckled twice, but "Step Brothers" is a boring movie with terrible comedic timing, terrible writing, and many stupid characters who we wish we could simply euthanize. The movie is, as my cousin told me upon walking out of the theater, "fucking stupid!"

Rating: 1

First Viewed: 8/9/08, in 35 mm projection - IMDb