Rating:

“You’re a robot.”

There is no doubt in my mind that many people are going to question the sense of humor of those who didn’t find Step Brothers funny with that same line. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a Will Ferrell film, with his character Brendan strutting around, feeling self-important and trying to make everyone else see him as the center of the universe with his loud mouthed shenanigans. But we’ve seen his same song and dance far too many times, to the point where nothing the film presents can be shocking or entertaining to anyone but the most faithful Ferrell apologetics.

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Ferrell and John C. Reilly star as Brendan and Dale, two 40-ish slackers still leeching off of their parents accomplishments. They’re the center of attention in their houses, getting whatever they want at the drop of a pin. But when Brendan’s passive mom Nancy (Mary Steenburgen) meets Dale’s ridiculously lenient father Robert (Richard Jenkins), sparks fly as the two fall into lust as a hearing aid convention. As they’re throwing off each others clothes, they quickly breeze through their hobbies, like and dislikes until both admit they have a grown son still living with them at home. What should act as the world’s biggest turn off actually results in the two getting married and moving in together.

The plot then takes a sharp turn into Odd Couple territory, with Brendan and Dale not getting along at all being forced to live under the same roof and sleeping in the same room no less. They fight over childish arguments and push each other’s buttons just for the hell of it (or for laughs… if you’ve got it in you). Their hatred grows exponentially until Brendan’s older brother Derek (Adam Scott) shows up with his obnoxious and overly preppy family. Everyone is in love with Derek, seeing as he’s the exact opposite of the two boys (I’d call them men… but that would kind of defeat the purpose of the movie) and they finally find something in common: they both hate Derek. From them on, the two boys become best friends and realize they both have a lot in common: their love of pop culture, martial arts, attractive male actors and smashing pumpkins for kicks.

The problem with director Adam McKay and Ferrell’s script is that they have confused silly with stupid. Quite surprisinly, I’ve heard many people compare the comic style of Ferrell to that of The Three Stooges or Jerry Lewis, which I find completely blasphemous. It’s true, the aforementioned comedians were childlike in their antics but they had a science to their craft, coming up with personas and universes that complimented each other equally and to great effect. Ferrell, who has now reached the low depths of Adam Sandler’s level, basically just recreates sketches he’s done a thousand times, stealing a basic premise of another movie and making it as vulgar as possible, with inordinate amounts of unintelligible improvisation.

The predictability of the comedy doesn’t help much either. When I watched Borat for the first time and he’s showing off picture in his wallet, nobody had anything idea he’d whip out a picture of his son’s penis and parade it around proudly like it was the most kosher thing in the world. It was entirely unexpected and that’s why it was amusing. In Step Brothers, they’ve dumbed down the comedy so much for the audience that they literally spell out every gag and punchline for you before it happens. In one scene, Brendan literally stands and proclaims to Dale, “I’m going to take out my balls and tea bag your drum set.” And, to no surprise, he then gets up and does it. A scene which could have shocked or amused (maybe caused a smirk at the least) has been stripped down to bare nuts and bolts, leaving no impact of any kind.

If improve is your thing, there are other Apatow produced efforts that are much better at capturing the randomness of a good comedy sketch. My advice: wait another two weeks and check out Pineapple Express, which will give far greater laughs to dollar ratio.