It’s quickly becoming difficult to say anything new about Will Ferrell.
His arrogant man-boy character is one of the strictest constants in movies today. Playing variations of this part has come back with all kinds of results, ranging from cult classic status (“Anchorman”) to instantly forgettable (“Semi-Pro”). But it’s come to the point where Ferrell has become like a working class Woody Allen: Their respective brands are immediately recognizable and feature as little deviation as possible.
His latest feature, “Step Brothers,” is another fine example of this.
Post-middle-agers Nancy (Mary Steenburgen) and Robert (Richard Jenkins) meet and by the time the credits end, along with that really catchy Vampire Weekend song, so does their wedding.
And while the two appear to be completely smitten, and ready to spend the rest of their lives with each other, there are still two problems. These problems go by the names Brennan (Ferrell) and Dale (John C. Reilly), the forty-year-old children of Nancy and Robert respectively, who never quite left the nest.
Behaving like two little kids seeking only to defend their turf, Brennan and Dale hate each other right away; a rivalry that leads to slapstick comedy and foul language galore.
While the premise seems tailor-made to Ferrell’s strengths, and some of the gags are pretty inspired, there’s no escaping the fact that “Step Brothers,” like so many Saturday Night Live star vehicles, is a sketch stretched to feature length. Ferrell and Reilly reprise their box-office-winning pairing from Talladega Nights, and there’s simply no denying their chemistry, but the foul things that they say often fall on jaded ears.
Sure, there’s a knee slapper or two, and Reilly is actually pretty amazing at delivering his lines in the most preposterously childlike ways imaginable, but it’s nothing to line up for. It’s a rare comedic actor who can make predictable dialogue funny, and though the two occasionally hint at this ability, far more often only a few chuckles are heard from the back rows of the theater.
Bit parts play relatively well, with some modestly humorous work from Tom Cruise look-alike Adam Scott as Brennan’s more successful younger brother, and his tortured, sex-starved wife, Alice (Kathryn Hahn), but it’s all only mild amusement. It’s tempting to say that slimming the film down would have made it significantly better, but at 95 minutes, the fat outweighs the meat.
It’s funny to think that as recently as last March producer Judd Apatow’s name was the golden seal of quality on any major comedy. And while it’s entirely unrealistic to expect a man who will see his name attached to its seventh movie in only a year’s time when “Pineapple Express” comes out, if “Drillbit Taylor” and “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” have taught us anything, its that Apatow needs the “Apatow gang” (Seth Rogan, Paul Rudd, etc.) for his name to really mean anything.
Otherwise, as with “Step Brothers,” he’s just another guy fronting some cash so that he can stand out of the way and watch Ferrell do his thing. Perhaps this time, a little intervention would have been nice.
(2/5 Stars)