Review: 'Step Brothers' relies on one joke

Directed by: Adam McKay

Starring: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Mary Steenburgen, Peter Jenkins

Rated: R

Will Ferrell is arguably the most “bankable” comic actor working in film today. He’s reached the same level of box-office guarantees achieved by Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler.

Ferrell, while always selling tickets, has made some bad films. I skipped “Talladega Nights” and should have skipped “Blades of Glory.” Satires about NASCAR or ice skating are overkill; the original subjects are funny enough. “Semi-Pro” completed the triumvirate of Ferrell’s bad sports films, while a fourth, “Kicking and Screaming,” was the exception to the rule.

John C. Reilly doesn’t command the same economic power of Ferrell but has never turned in a bad performance. (Again, I didn’t see “Talladega Nights.”) His portrayal of the title character in “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” was comic genius. His dramatic credentials – “Boogie Nights,” “Magnolia,” “Gangs of New York” – are equally impeccable.

Both actors have reached a nadir with their new film, “Step Brothers,” written by Ferrell and his “Saturday Night Live” buddy Adam McKay with Reilly contributing enough improv to garner a writing credit. McKay, who directed and co-wrote Ferrell’s best film, “Anchorman,” also directs here.

To be sure, there are funny moments, but “Step Brothers” is a one-joke film and is fairly mean and sour-spirited and at times simply lewd. Only Mary Steenburgen – whose voice and demure screen presence are always so affecting – brings any hint of class to the production.

The film’s R rating is deserved but seems odd because the obvious target audience has to be males in their early teens.

Ferrell plays Brennan Huff, a 39-year-old perpetual adolescent who still lives with his mom, Nancy (Steenburgen). Reilly is Dale Doback, a 40-year-old fellow of the same ilk who lives with his dad, Robert (Peter Jenkins).

The movie wastes no time setting up the premise: Nancy and Robert meet, marry and finally have to face the reality of trying to have a life with two fully grown sons who are emotional seventh-graders. Steve Carrell in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” was funny and engaging. You rooted for him. Brennan and Dale are simply stereotypical slackers who never make the viewer care about them.

When Nancy and Robert get married, the quartet moves in together. I don’t really need to explain that Brennan and Dale, arrested in their development (that’s the joke, and it gets old quick) hate each other.

At first that is.

But they begin to discover things they like about each other – 1980s-era T-shirts, Chewbacca masks, a mutual hatred of Brennan’s annoying yuppie brother – and they become ... yes! … best friends.

Trouble ensues when Brennan’s unctuous brother Derek (Adam Scott) says he can sell Robert’s home and he and Nancy can retire early and fulfill their dream of sailing ’round the world on Robert’s yacht.

But that would entail Brennan and Dale getting jobs and places of their own, which they do ... sort of.

Judd Apatow, on a roll from writing, directing and producing this sort of comedy, many of them good (“Superbad” is his best) is listed as producer, but this is obviously a Ferrell/McKay vehicle, and they deserve the blame.

Reilly’s contributions as a writer (I’m assuming I can tell what he contributed) lift up the sophomoric screenplay somewhat, and Steenburgen and Jenkins add out-of-place measured performances to the most overtly adolescent film to come along since “There’s Something About Mary,” which I also disliked.

Being lewd for lewd’s sake gets old very quickly.

“Step Brothers” is not my idea of a good or funny film (despite Steenburgen and a few good jokes) but it will be one of the biggest money-makers of the year, just like “There’s Something About Mary” was 10 years ago. And it will be a crowd pleaser.

It’s such a shame. Even “dumb” movies (“Anchorman,” “Knocked Up”) can be so much smarter. And better.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.