Movie Review: “Step Brothers”
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in “Step Brothers.”
Rating: 69
“Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” only scratched the surface of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly’s comic chemistry: director Adam McKay’s “Step Brothers” shows the skilled improv comedians in their naturally crass environment, whipping up laughs at an almost exhausting speed.
When Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins) meets Nancy Huff (Mary Steenburgen) at a medical convention, it is lust at first sight, but when the middle-aged singles learn that both have 40-year-old sons living at home, the lust blossoms into empathetic love. Nancy brings Brennan (Ferrell) to live with the doctor and his son Dale (Reilly), and the two arrested adolescents clash immediately, staking out territory and staging epic battles before finding immature common ground.
As a united front, Dale and Brennan are dangerous, and thanks to the machinations by Brennan’s brother, corporate sleazebag Derek (Adam Scott), the newlyweds decide to sell the house and take a world cruise, forcing the siblings to finally enter the real world. This is where Ferrell and Reilly strut their improvisational genius — “Step Brothers” only seems to build as it goes.
Enjoying “Step Brothers” requires checking all hang-ups at the door. While “Talladega Nights” and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” burst at the confines of PG-13-level humor, “Step Brothers” earns its R rating with flying, stinky colors. Reilly and Ferrell wallow in their sandbox and make a filthy mess. But like the best films in the Judd Apatow/McKay universe, “Step Brothers” works because the performers and writers are inspired, and McKay treats the characters like real people, not joke machines.
John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins and Will Ferrell in “Step Brothers.”
And some of the best bits come from supporting players. Jenkins truly cuts loose after his understated performance in “The Visitor,” and Scott (“Tell Me You Love Me”) steals wide swaths of “Step Brothers” as the monomaniacal Derek — the phrase “F—— Catalina Wine Mixer” is destined to be on a hipster T-shirt near you. “Step Brothers” is a monument to the worst of sibling rivalry, and it’s more than the sum total of its bodily functions.
— George Lang
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