Step Brothers
Review
by Sean Lynch
More Step Brothers: View Trailer |
Second Opinion Review
It's not
very often you get to see a grown man smear his hairy love pellets
across an expensive drum kit. In fact, I don't think I can ever recall
seeing such an act or hearing the phrase "I just tea bagged your
drums"... ever.
So, in that sense... I guess it's not going too far out on a limb to suggest the the latest Will Ferrell comedy, Step Brothers, is in fact ground breaking cinema.
While Ferrell and his merry band of cohorts have been happily raking in the cash from the likes of Talladega Nights, Blade of Glory and Semi-Pro
- the white elephant in the room (or is it the Pink Elephant? I'm never
sure) is the fact that the big man of comedy hasn't really made us
laugh since Anchorman back in 2004.
You may have tricked yourself into thinking you sat and laughed through that whole "Dinner Table Baby Jesus Scene" in Talladega... but the truth is - no one did.
Everyone just wished they were.
So it's with a great sense of honour that I can announce that this re-teaming of Ferrell, John C.
Reilly and director Adam McKay is a complete and unabashed return to form.
Step Brothers follows Ferrell & Reilly as Brennan Huff and Dale Doback,
two terminally
unemployed forty-year-olds who still live with their respective single parents.
However, when Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Nancy (Mary Steenburgen) decide to
marry and move in together, Brennan and Dale are
forced to live with each other as step brothers. But as their
out-of-control lifestyles start to cause havoc, the two enemies must
team up in order to save their parents marriage.
This
team's brand of humour and blatant improvisation skills are at an all
time high here. However, unlike their previous fews efforts (where it
seems whatever was said automatically made it into the film) each and
every line here - improvised or scripted - is pure gold.
Brennan and Dale's downright
aggressive laziness (which threatens to tear the new family apart),
immaturity (the guys seem to be of the maturity level of eight year
olds) is performed to perfection by this great on screen comedy duo.
The
sheer energy of Ferrell & Reilly often borders the line of comedic
brilliance and downright annoyance, with their ability to simply throw
totally random and unrelated words or phrases into the fray (my
favourite comes from Ferrell during a botched "Business Meeting" in
which he claims he "... Put liquid paper on a bee... and it died")
making for such an amazingly humerous and absurd 90 minutes.
The
supporting cast supply plenty of laughs too (Brennan's perfect brother
and his singing family are a real highlight) with Jenkins and Steenburgen (who looks amazing - to think it was almost 20 years ago she was in Back To The Future III) playing the 'Martin' to the boys 'Lewis' with great success.
Step Brothers
is yet another cult classic string for Ferrell to add to his bow and is
by no means the stinker that we were all expecting. It delivers
consistent laughs all the way to the closing credits - and you would
have to say that this could well mark the triumphant return of Will
Ferrell as the King-Of-Comedy.
Now, if only he can keep this level of quality idiocy up for the mooted Anchorman 2...
4 out
of 5
Step
Brothers
Australian release: 18th
September,
2008
Official
Site: Step Brothers
Cast: Will Ferrell, John C.
Reilly, Mary Steenburgen
Director: Adam McKay
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