Those puzzled by Will Ferrell's feature-film superstardom will still be scratching their heads after watching his latest, a painfully unfunny “high concept” comedy that squanders the considerable gifts of its accomplished supporting cast. Ferrell stars as Brennan Huff—slacker son of Nancy Huff (Mary Steenburgen)—who is forced to accompany his mother when she moves in with new husband Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins). Turns out the stepdad has an underachieving scion as well: Dale (John C. Reilly), who bitterly resents having to share his bedroom with Brennan. Director Adam McKay's Step Brothers quickly devolves into a tiresome tit-for-tat, with both stepbrothers coming off as more mentally challenged than competitive. We're supposed to laugh as Ferrell and Reilly engage in pranks a 10-year-old would find childish, but even when things turn really nasty and Brennan tries to bury Dale alive, it's hard to find the humor in middle-aged men behaving like petulant children (and Ferrell's self-indulgent penchant for improvising only makes things worse). The one saving grace is Jenkins' performance: as the exasperated father he's a hilarious study in barely controlled rage, easily overshadowing the two leads in every scene they share. Not recommended. [Note: Available in either unrated or R rated versions, or a “2-Disc Unrated Widescreen Edition”, DVD/Blu-ray extras on the two-disc unrated edition include a musical audio commentary scored by composer Jon Brion (featuring costars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, director Adam McKay, and special guest NBA star Baron Davis), 40 minutes of extended and alternate scenes, a half-hour of job interview segments, a 22-minute “making-of” featurette, an 18-minute featurette on the score, 14 minutes of extended therapy segments, the fake on-set romance featurette “L'amour En Caravane” (12 min.), 15 minutes of deleted scenes, a “Charlyne Moves In” joke featurette (8 min.), seven minutes of outtakes, a “Line-O-Rama” featurette (6 min.), a gag reel (4 min.), the “Boats ‘N Hoes” music video by Farrell and Reilly, and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is the “Boats ‘N Hoes” music video editor. Also included is a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: a whopping extras package for an underwhelming comedy.] (E. Hulse)
Step Brothers
Sony, 105 min., R, DVD: $28.99, Blu-ray: $39.99, Dec. 2 Volume 23, Issue 6
Step Brothers
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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