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Moriarty’s Seen STEP BROTHERS!
Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.
STEP BROTHERS is the work of diseased minds.
Really. Dale and Brennan are sociopaths. They are as shit-your-pants crazy as Heath Ledger’s The Joker. And STEP BROTHERS seems to be celebrating this particular brand of manchild retardation as not only a good thing, but a birthright. It is all about the triumph of the bizarre over the mundane.
And, like TALLADEGA NIGHTS and ANCHORMAN, the previous McKay/Ferrell films, it is very, very, very, very funny.
What’s strange is that I think this film has some very subversive and canny things to say about modern parenting, but using the most extreme comic exaggeration so that most critics who write the movie off will do so on a surface level only. At this point, you probably have some idea if you’re onboard with the particular chemistry between McKay and Ferrell. ANCHORMAN is seemingly very well-liked, oft-quoted, and admired for just how crazy it is. TALLADEGA NIGHTS was, I thought, even better, a lacerating American self-portrait. STEP BROTHERS is about the fine line between indulging our kids and supporting them. We live in a culture of entitlement that is pervasive. If you indulge your kid and give in to every little marketing beck and call that they whine about, are you going to end up with one of these 20 or 25 or 30 year old sponges unable to carve out a life for themselves? At what point do you push the baby bird out of the nest? I haven’t had to face this obviously, but every parent does at some point. There are questions I ask myself all the time: Am I a good parent? Am I going to prepare my sons for the world? Can I teach them to lead a life of worth?
Or am I going to end up with a sociopathic 6’4” raging manbaby throwing me down the stairs while he’s sleepwalking? I certainly hope not. Richard Jenkins, as Dr. Doback, certainly has the best of intentions when he hooks up with Nancy Huff, played by Mary Steenburgen. It’s an instant attraction, and when they realize they share more than a passing professional interest in common, the attraction becomes something more. Quickly.
In fact, the opening titles of this film communicate more story and in a more succinct and entertaining way that most films manage in a first act. By the time the main title STEP BROTHERS comes up, with Will and John C. Reilly framing the words, you’ve pretty much got all the set-up you need for the whole film. It’s not a story-driven movie at all... it’s character. It’s just the dynamics of this new family. And although Ferrell and Reilly play the leads, both Jenkins and Steenburgen were written unusually active and meaty supporting roles. Adam Scott gets one of his biggest roles in anything so far, and he makes a strong impression as Derek, Ferrell’s younger brother. He plays it like Tom Cruise with the crazy turned up even louder. There’s an early scene with him singing in the car with his family that is just as freaky as the dinner table scene in TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. His wife Alice, played with a go-for-broke abandon, gets weirder and weirder as the film goes on. It’s not just Ferrell and Reilly that get to go for it, and that’s one of the things I like about the script.
It doesn’t all work. There’s a subplot with a blind neighbor that they continually try to make vague callbacks to, and it never works. Not once. And the Andrea Savage therapist character never quite gels, either. But for the most part, I laughed in every scene. If you, like me, thought the dinner table scene in TALLADEGA NIGHTS was one of the film’s highlights, then I have a feeling you’ll dig 99% of STEP BROTHERS. That conversation was the purest, strangest, funniest thing in that film, so real and yet completely and absolutely insane. I love the way Dale and Brennan keep switching from enemy to friend and back over the course of the film. I love the fact that the movie got an R for “crude and sexual content and pervasive language,” which is a very formal way of saying “this movie is dirty as fuck.” It’s blisteringly dirty. I won’t ruin jokes or tell you about the drum set or try to remember exactly how many uses of “cock” there are in the movie. I’ll simply say it’s almost unrelenting in its gleeful filth, and I appreciated that. It didn’t have to be that dirty, obviously. You could do the PG version of this movie and it would probably make more money. But the hard, hard, hard R rated version of it? Preposterously funny. So that’s fine by me. I think McKay’s got a really clean and sharp visual style as a comic director that reminds me of Blake Edwards. Something about the way his timing works. And that’s a compliment, as far as I’m concerned.
You absolutely have to stay through at least the first half of the credits, because if you leave, you will have thrown away your ticket money. You will have missed the big event. Trust me on this... stay. It’s so worth it.
Now that they’ve pushed each other this far with this kind of material, I’d like to see someone hire both Reilly and Ferrell and put them in something very real, very honest, very grounded and serious, because I think what’s great about watching them together right now isn’t just the comedy... it’s the connection. They are totally in tune with each other, and that’s what makes the scenes so exciting. That sense that they’re almost daring each other to keep up. McKay was smart to put these guys together again after TALLADEGA. He saw what happened between them on set, and he took a chance on it happening again. He was right, because ultimately, STEP BROTHERS only works if you buy what happens between Reilly and Ferrell. I did. I think they snap into a shared tone that they manage to ride through the movie. It’s an abrasive film at times. It’s coarse. The “heartwarming” ending of the film is more freakshow than tearjerker, which I’m sure is intentional. These are things I like about the movie, but they’re also things that might well keep some people from giving themselves over to it.
No matter. As far as I’m concerned, McKay and Ferrell are three for three, and I’m ready for whatever they’re going to do next.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Readers Talkback
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still aint seen anchorman yet, keep meaning to rent it. talladega nights rules tho
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really hoping. Also, I would have been first if my cookies were working. Luckily, the guy who WAS first didn't annoyingly call it.
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and it needs to start filming, like, yesterday.
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Dark knight , best movie of the year! besides pineapple express will most likely if not be a lot more funnier than step brothers, bring on Anchorman 2
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but the ad's for this movie just aren't funny, though one would hope they've saved the biggest laughs for the movie itself. I hate it when you've seen the ad so many times on t.v and in theatres that its not just funny anymore, only to discover they were the only gags in the whole movie.
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Looks like I'll be seeing this instead of THE X-FILES.
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been first a few times, never called it, never will. Says here on wiki that ferrell is gonna be in the land of the lost adaptation next year, that could be ok
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...I'll just see THE DARK KNIGHT again.
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Yep, get on this.
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Which is a good thing.
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No, I'm not, obviously. Who cares if you are LOSER!!! Do you write this in your Blog after and craem your Superman underroos after.
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Dumb and dumber was already made twice. I think I am done with movies that look stupid since they use the best clips anyway anymore. Love Guru was the last straw on that given.
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good thing in Anchorman. "lamp...i like lamp".
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Before Hancock of all movies on the 4th of July. While I'm a fan of the prodigious use of "Fuck" in the movie, from what I saw... Will Ferrell is aging on me, not fine wine-ish, but vinegary. John C. Reily should go back to the place he was in when he made Boogie Nights and Magnolia - he had a lot more charisma then, now he just seems to be playing every character as "Look at me, I was really famous once, can I park your car?"
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Horribly unfunny. Everything from his little shit kids to the way Ferrel clearly improvved his way through every scene.
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Yup. this movie is DEFINATELY not for me.
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Laughed my ass off. This is a pretty demented comedy and I was chocking from laughing so much. It's totally worth checking out. I also saw the red band trailer and once again, false advertising... the job interview scene used in the movie is different from the one in the trailer. I really hate when they do that. God damn marketing department!
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:30 seconds into the credits they come back for another scene which is really funny and then there's a tiny stinger at the very end of the credits.
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No more Will Ferrell for me. And Mori's taste in movies is questionable at best.
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July 22, 2008, 8:03 a.m. CST
"to the way Ferrel clearly improvved his way through every scene
by smackfu
No shit sherlock. These films aren't scripted beyond plot outline, they ad lib 95% of them.
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In fact it looked like something that would ordinarily be done by Rob Schneider...
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me want to see it. As far as Will Ferrell being one-note (or two-note, I guess, with Pompous Macho Man and Angry Crazy Man), I don't mind. If all I did was watch Ferrell movies all day long, then yes, I would be sick of his schtick. But I watch a couple movies of his a year, and that's just a few hours out of an entire year of my life. Not enough exposure for me to develop a raging hatred for the man, like many talkbackers seem to have. If any one-note comedian should be despised, let it be Adam Sandler. One single "joke" of his a year, even in a trailer, far exceeds my tolerance.
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and Moriarty's right. It's really fucking funny. And, thankfully, it's under 2 hours, unlike a lot of the comedies that have come out recently. Definitely worth the ticket price.
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It's like Ferrell and Reilly were directed to act like actual 12 year olds instead of simply immature adults. Most of the time it simply doesn't work.
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I saw a two hour cut last month, and while it was hilarious, they needed to cut a lot out. The only thing I want to know is PLEASE tell me they kept in the heart attack scene. That's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
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Was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The only part of the movie I enjoyed was the lunch prayer seen with the "Baby Jesus." Other than that, garbage. Anchor Man was good so maybe i'll give this a shot. I'm really surprised you liked Talladega Mori. Don't get me wrong, stupid comedy is funny sometimes, but I always found you to be the one guy on this site who looked for smarter films. I think i'll see this now, just because I'm curious after reading your review..
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Pull my finger.
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This is the most freewheelingly positive thing you've written in ages. Maybe the new kid slept through the night for the first time...
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"HEY! I took a dump in the back of the store..." said by Will Ferrell as if waiting for someone to throw some food at him so he pick it up and steal it. "Gum is not a food." The Buscemi. His great gift in his Saturday Night Live short films is his ability to create a very alien, very bat-shit crazy world that actually feels like an extension of our own. Love his films but they don't approach the madness of those little films; they kept me coming back to a show that I'd long before lost a lot of hope in. Oh, and the one with Ben Stiller falling in love with Will Ferrell Tom Cruise-esque movie star; that always felt like an epic short to me. Reminds me of Donnie's speech in "Magnolia," "I'll be good to you - I'LL BE GODDAMN GOOD to you. Okay. See you later. Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye."
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The venom spat at these movies always puzzled me until I realized that geeks have a knee-jerk response to NASCAR and the Good Ol' Boy culture that will automatically taint their reactions to media involving such things. I would guess that's the root of it, espeically in the case of Cars" which apparently was to most geeks the Anti-Incredibles. "Aw man, they follow up a sweet superhero movie with NASCAR? My adulthood has been RAPED!" Pixar characterizations are usually pretty sweet-natured and straightforward, from the Toys to the Robot. Cars had little to distinguish it from other Pixar masterpieces except the glorification of the absolutely anti-geek NASCAR which many so-called "open minds" can't get over. Go ahead and tell me I'm wrong, it won't change my mind.
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They're tired. New choice.
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Admittedly, when I screened this last week, I was in a bad mood. The screening was supposed to start at 7:30 and instead didn't get going until about an hour later because they had double-booked it with WALL-E. So I was working, had just come off deadlines and was seated next to a group of 14 year old (don't know how they got let into this). I laughed, but I thought it was definitely the worst of the Ferrell/McKay projects; Ferrell and Reilly are funny but they're obviously coasting, not creating full characters. And unlike Anchorman or Talledega Nights, both of which I love, this is truly just a two-person show. There's no making the supporting characters part of the insanity; they pretty much just react to everything else. It's funny, but it's pretty much all cheap laughs. Screened Pineapple Express last night, which was a much better and funnier comedy.
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...that it's basically a cartoon version of Doc Hollywood. Which wasn't that good a movie when it wasn't a cartoon.
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that people think is so hilarious? I don't get it. I've seen him in Anchorman, Old School, the recent one about basketball, a bunch of SNL skits, etc. And he's just. not. funny. Bill Murray taking a nap is funnier. Seth Rogen is funnier. Hell, John McCain is funnier. You can see Will's stuff coming from the bleachers. Nothing subtle and nothing even amusing. Different strokes for different folks I guess, but I know guys who think he's a comic genius and it amazes me.
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No thank you. Reilly's Walk Hard was funnier than anything Ferrell has ever done, EVER.
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Is it just me, or is this story premise a partial ripoff of the Jon Heder flick "Mama's Boy," except with brothers instead of one guy?
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why is she making movies? She's horrible.<p> And I think McKay > Ferrell. He can play up the Jerry Lewis stuff, and also do the serious stuff (thought he was great in Perfect Storm).
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as Scorcese is to DeNiro..they bring out their best..? I loved Anchorman, enjoyed Nights and do look forward to this. It may look like a FunnyOrDie skit stretched to feature length, but Ferrell and Reilly's chemistry looks to save it. Hell, I chuckle at lines in the trailer "Let the dirt wash over you..", "Helloo Miss Lady.." And it looks like the best comedy of the summer so far, at least until Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder.<p>BTW The glorious return of Tim and Eric w/ Reilly's Dr. Steve Brule, is this weekend on Adult Swim. The fact that I love that show, may help explain my taste in comedy, for good or for bad.
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People with sketch backgrounds forget that any movie needs to tell a story that sustains that running time. It doesn't have to be The Maltese Falcon, but it does have to sustain the interest of the audience. Taledaga Nights went on far too long for me, though there were some really funny moments in it. And Anchor Man was disappointing because they had a great idea for a movie and really just did nothing with it.
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You don't feel that the Dues Ex Machina of Baxter the talking dog returning to appease the ferocious but merely reactive nature of the Zoo bear was a satisfying concluding narrative thread? Personally, I was moved to tears. *Actually, I did cry in that movie: I actually lost vision because of the tears that welled up in my eyes I was laughing so hard during the Sex Panther scene. It is absurd entertainment but I have to admit that the creativity of the films and their improvisations is pretty thrilling. Especially when you have the Kingpin admiting his penchant for dressing up as a woman and signing along to Donna Summer; and it just isn't the idea but the performance. Truly performance pieces. Did you see "Year of the Dog" Rev. Slappy, what did you think? It seems to possess a lot of the qualities of the McKay films while grounding them in fairly realistic characters and situations sustained throughout the film's duration with character growth and progressive definition. I was really impressed by that film, even if it went really dark places I never thought it would and never the less came out with the main character being loved and forgiven despite an almost unimaginable attempted act. Its one that definately stays with your thoughts. The McKay films may not touch deeper than the funny bone but they do provide some unbridled laughter; that can be a damn wonderful act.
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I was a high school teacher for 10 years and had to get out of it for the sake of my own sanity and financial security. I have witnessed idiot parents in their natural habitat. I think the main problem with most parents today (and trust me, there are so many things wrong with parents today it's hard to narrow it down to one broad category) is they don't seem to want their kids to have a better life or more opportunity that they had. They want their kids to be an affirmation of who they are. They raise their kids to be exactly like themselves so they will feel better about who they became and the compromises they made along the way. That's why parents are unable to deal with any constructive criticism aimed at their kids -- any criticism of their kids is really a criticism of them. Parents today are DESPERATELY seeking the approval of their own kids.
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with the '70s lifestyle parody, womens lib message, the secret language of dogs (!!), anchormen street fight, etc. But what it was is funny, or at least to me.
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You're right, Anchorman was all over the map...and that's what was so funny about it, was the many absurd directions the film went in. That's also what made Talledega so good...the films created these bizarre worlds in which the humor was still there even if Ferrell wasn't in the scene. 'Step Brothers' is a one-joke comedy: Ferrell and Reilly act like kids. No one else steps in to help with the comedy. The supporting cast feels lost and the film is basically one skit after another. It's funny to a point, but I also found it annoying and strangely unsettling.
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I think Anchorman has some funny moments in it (I laughed like a crazy person when Jack Black kicks the dog off the bridge), but it's essentially a collection of sketches strung together. The thing that always bugged me about that movie was they had a great idea for a story to tell and didn't seem at all interested in that story. I'm from Kansas City originally and one of the local female news anchors was fired from her station because she wasn't attractive enough. She sued and won the first judgement in a case like that. The idea of women being given equal footing in the workplace is a great premise for a movie, I would have loved to see it be more like Tootsie -- a real movie comedy instead a bunch of random sketches. The Ricky Bobby movie had a much strong narrative structure but didn't have that great of an idea for a movie.
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this has got to be better than Semi Pro. THAT is Ferrell coasting..
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He's the best writer on AICN hands down, but...<BR><BR>he has a TERRIBLE sense of humor. Lets not forget one simple fact--Moriarty thought THE LOVE GURU was hilarious.
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I laughed at "Anchorman" exactly one time: The "Sex Panther" scene, when someone said it smelled like "Bigfoot's dick". It still makes me laugh to think of it. The rest of it was boring and unfunny.
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I like Ferrell, I like Reilly, I like Jenkins and Steenburgen and McKay. But this movie was bad.
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Seriously, I'm 36 and live with my wife, son and mother in my mother's house, don't have a job, never had, and don't know what I'd like to do with my life. Been to 3 shrinks, didn't help, waste of money. You don't know the shame I feel.
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you are horrible, grats.
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and I'm easily amused.
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Now that was some damned funny shit.
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But I also thought Walk Hard was funny.
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but Moriarty's love for Talladega Nights along with finding this movie very very funny won't inspire many to see it. Talladega was very very very unfunny.
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It was fucking horrible.
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Don't think he's funny at all. The only film of his I could kinda of sit thru and that was not in a theater, was Elf. He's just not funny to me; he's annoying. He seems to do a variation on the same dunderhead every time out. He was annoying on Saturday Night, too. I'd rather be dragged to an Eddie Murphy movie (though please, don't).
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I usually don't like paying to see people in a movie screw around for an hour and a half. That's the feeling Talladega gave me. No need to be a prick.
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July 22, 2008, 4:19 p.m. CST
If don't like Will Ferrell, why even click the link to this revi
by Flim Springfield
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This is true.
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That is the important thing.
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And I doubt Ferrell and Perlman are related, because I hear that Ron Perlman's a real jerk. If Will Ferrell's a jerk as well, then maybe they ARE related.<p>Why can't Ron Perlman be nice, like Christian Bale? Jerk. >:(
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You are obviously a soulless, miserable fucking (and, yes, filthy) waste of space. Every guinea pig I've known is probably worth a hundred of you. I have never written the following words with more sincerity and zest: eat shit and die, SoylentMean.<BR><BR>That funny enough for you?
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WTF?!?! TALLADEGA NIGHTS and ANCHORMAN were, IMO, barely watchable films. TALLADEGA NIGHTS was one of the dumbest, low-brow, zany wackfests I've seen since Norbit...and it sucked just as bad. Just dumb and completely unfunny. And ANCHORMAN my wife and I turned off mid-way. It was also just plain insipidly stupidly dumb. Will Farrel is funny only in small doses. When they hand him an entire movie, it just ends up being idiotic (with the one exception being STRANGER THAN FICTION). So this is a no brainer: I won't be seeing STEP BROTHERS...ever!
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WEDDING CRASHERS and 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN. Lose the Will Farrel stuff...it's just too zany and unreal for my taste.
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Aside from Borat in Ricky Bobby, the movie is just okay. It is funny, kinda, but no hilarious
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Not possible.
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that trailer sold me. i'm going to see this movie for sure. when he's buring him alive and says "let the dirt just shower over you." i almost peed myself.
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Any marketing suggestions? Aww, I keed.
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. . . I enjoy most every comedy I set down in front of. But I have never once been able to really get into a will ferrel movie. They're just too damn stupid. Not a silly kind of stupid but a sad pathetic kind of stupid.
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I think it was Austin Powers, where Mike Myers mentioned he loved Will Ferrell (in the bit part of Mustafa) because of his "crazy eyes". And sometimes, when you look at those little peepers of Ferrell, it does look like something strange is going on in that brainpan of his.<p>And I know people hate having Rotten Tomatoes quoted, but 7 out of 0 positive reviews, even from people I've never heard of, is more instructive than a negative from some jamoke who caught an early screening.
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I can feel your pain with the guinea pig situation. Twice. Hate the little bastards.
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Always enjoy a good comedy for the summer and I hope this fits the bill.
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You didn't forget all about sharing the dope on that "hottest read" you teased us with...did you?
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I watched about 45 minutes on cable and then bailed. Not funny. Had nothing to do with it being about NASCAR. I detest when people rip on those who watch NASCAR. I just didn't think Talladega was funny.
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July 23, 2008, 10:18 p.m. CST
"which many so-called "open minds" can't get over. Go ahead and
by Dr. Hfuhruhurr
That sounds like the exact opposite of an open mind.
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What is it about watching cars go in a circle that is so exciting?
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...some like to watch people running in a circle. Some like to watch horses running in a circle. To each his own.
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