Step Brothers
July 31, 2008 · Print This Article
“Step Brothers,” which was produced by Judd Apatow and his and Will Ferrell’s manager, Jimmy Miller, is nowhere near as good, funny or polished as “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” the Nascar spoof directed by Adam McKay, which was also produced by Mr. Apatow and Mr. Miller. In that movie, Mr. Ferrell and John C. Reilly play best, not terribly bright, friends. Here, again directed by Mr. McKay, they play not terribly bright slackers turned brothers turned friends, who, after their parents wed, generate a lot of noisy, fitfully amusing, ultimately tiresome havoc. They’re losers that only a mother, an entertainment manager or a gang of self-satisfied comedy insiders could love.
The idea of two men of around 40 still living with their folks and addicted to nominally juvenile pursuits (toys, pornography, “Star Wars”) seems like grist for the comedy mill or a newspaper trend piece. Mostly, though, it sounds like an idea that was hatched (Mr. McKay?) in waggish reaction to yet another movie review carping about how American comedies are stuck in adolescence. They are, and have been. (”Hey Abbott!”) What’s distinct about the recent cycle of comic juvenilia are its contemporary contours — male camaraderie and self-actualization combined with raunchy guffaws and a preoccupation with women that doesn’t extend to giving them interesting roles — and the ease with which its prominent practitioners are willing to recycle their own laughs to increasingly diminished ends.
