Step Brothers Movie Review

No one can play a 40-year-old immature man-child like Will Ferrell. Ferrell's Talladega Nights and Step Brothers partner in crime, John C Reilly, is pretty close, but Ferrell's the current title holder. After a couple of hugely disappointing comedies, Step Brothers is the king of immature characters with material that's right in his area. And while Step Brothers isn't a home run by any stretch of the imagination, it is a solid double that shows Ferrell's back in the game.
With his Anchorman and Talladega Nights director Adam McKay at the controls, and working off a script he co-wrote with McKay, Ferrell's reconnected with what's funny. Yes, it's total lowbrow humor – fart jokes and put-downs 13-year-old boys would come up with – but Ferrell and McKay know how far they can push gross-out gags and immature humor before they lose their audience.
Ferrell and Reilly play Brennan Huff and Dale Doback, two 40 year old men raised separately by the most patient single parents ever. If asked, both Brennan and Dale would say they're living a great life – no jobs, no goals, and no worries. Brennan and Dale love the sleeping in, watching TV, and living off and mom and dad, but their parents have other plans. When Brennan's mom, Nancy (Mary Steenburgen), and Dale's dad, Robert (Richard Jenkins), fall in love and get married the idea of having two grown men laze around the house wears thin, especially when the men hate each other with a passion. Dale doesn't want to share his bedroom – or his drums – with this stranger. Brennan's equally unhappy about his mom's decision to merge their family with that of the Dobacks.
After taking an immediate dislike to one another, Brennan and Dale are forced into liking each other when their parental Robert and Nancy decide it's time to send them out on there own. How dare mom and dad push them into acting like adults? What's the world coming to when two 40-year-old guys can't sit home watching Shark Week without fear of having to find a job, an apartment, and a life? Discovering they have a lot more in common than they ever imagined, Brennan and Dale come up with a plan of attack that involves singing, drumming, and Robert's prize possession – the boat he intends to sail around the world with Nancy when they retire. You just know this isn't going to end well.
The smartest decision made by Ferrell, McKay and Reilly was to go authentic and have the lead characters be in their 40s. Step Brothers would have entered ridiculously stupid territory had Ferrell and Reilly tried to play them younger, although the jokes themselves play to all ages. And while watching Ferrell and Reilly play emotional men with evokes a feeling of déjà vu, these guys pull it off because they're obviously having a blast working off of each other.
Adam Scott (August) co-stars as Brennan's super successful narcissistic brother, Derek. Derek terrorized Brennan when they were kids and, as adults, Derek continues to be the thorn in his brother's flabby side. Scott had a minor role in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up and with much more screen time in this Apatow-produced comedy, Scott steals a few scenes from Ferrell and Reilly. Also stealing the spotlight and delivering some of the film's best lines, Crossing Jordan's, Kathryn Hahn playing Derek's wife, Alice. Hahn is absolutely hilarious as the lecherous sister-in-law who seduces the virginal Dale after he takes her thoughtless husband down a notch or two.
For all its stupid humor and silly dialogue, Step Brothers has a surprising amount of heart and a genuinely touching message. The team of McKay and Ferrell focus on the goofy, childish maneuverings of Brennan and Dale, but they've added a twist at the end that's uplifting yet not completely out of touch with the rest of the production.