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'Step Brothers': Silly, but successful

By Roger Moore The Orlando Sentinel

We all know the spoiled brat down the street — the teasing, the taunting, the tantrums, the tears, all coming from a kid so overindulged he or she rules his or her household. They exaggerate and lie, say whatever inappropriate (and profane) thing that pops into their heads, don't share and refuse to play nice.

But suppose that brat is 40. Suppose he's a big baby with a potty mouth, infantile obsessions and five o'clock shadow. And that he's still living under your roof.

Step Brothers is a raunchy, no-holds-barred farce, a movie that teams Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as perma-adolescents addicted to TV, junk food, Guitar Hero and Star Wars, nerdy jerks who can't get along when their parents marry. It's also a cautionary horror tale to the few, the indulgent, the enablers — permissive parents who create these monsters.

Ferrell is Brennan, an adult in name only. He still rides in the back seat of Mom's car, still lives in her house, still hasn't learned any manners. He got fired from his last job, at PetSmart.

”I was laid off, not that you'd know the difference!“

And he's not OK with mom Nancy (Mary Steenburgen) marrying Robert (Richard Jenkins), tossing a fit even on their wedding day.

Robert's ”boy“ Dale? He's employed.

”I manage a baseball team.“

”Little League?“

”Fantasy league.“

Combining households means the lads will have to share a room. Dale has but one rule.

”Don't ever, ever, ever touch my drum set!“

When Brennan does, your eyes will never ever, ever forget which body part he uses for that touching.

They feud. They threaten. They brawl. But somehow, they bond. And that's when the real trouble starts.

Ferrell and Reilly play this silliness as if their very careers were riding on it, and considering the box-office take of Walk Hard and Semi-Pro, that's not a bad call.

The movie's many Judd Apatow touches (the drum-touching, the blasts of profanity) give it the usual comic jolts. Bit players — from a blind neighbor who makes an appointment to come out and touch Nancy's face, to the various personnel directors who interview the stepbrothers for jobs — score.

Some funny set pieces include Brennan's hateful, successful younger brother, Derek (Adam Scott, a hoot) leading his bullied family in a stellar a cappella sing-along to Sweet Child o'Mine by Guns N' Roses. His downtrodden wife (Kathryn Hahn) fantasizes retribution that includes revenge sex — with his stepbrother. Jenkins and Steenburgen break their acting pigeonholes by matching Reilly and Ferrell, curse for curse, excess for excess.

Step Brothers is a stupid, patently absurd comedy that fires on most of its cylinders, landing a half-dozen laughs before the opening credits are done.

It's not subtle, not the cleverest thing Apatow has ever put his name on. But for lowdown, cheap and dirty laughs, it's pretty hard to beat Reilly and Ferrell, riffing, trashing and trash-talking each other for 94 mostly mean, sometimes manic minutes.