Step Brothers

There are movies out there that if they come on TV, you have to stop and watch them, regardless of what you are doing. For me, there are a couple in this category. If it’s a drama, its Shawshank Redemption, if it’s an action movie, it’s the Fugitive or Die Hard, and if it’s a comedy, its Step Brothers.

Throughout the 2000s, Adam McKay worked with Will Ferrell to produce a number of films that were just really strong comedies starring Ferrell. The top four that I can think of that had the most impact on me when I was growing up was, Anchorman, Talladega Nights, The Other Guys, and of course Step Brothers.

Step Brothers follows the story of a man named Robert Doback (played by Richard Jenkins) and a woman named Nancy Huff (played by Mary Steenburgen) who both have sons who are 40 years old and still live at home with them. As fate would have it, these two meet and fall in love and get married. So when they move in together, their sons have to move in together as well. Nancy’s son is Brennan (played by Will Ferrell) and Robert’s son is Dale (played by John C Reilly). Right off the bat these two clash and you can only imagine the hijinks that come as a result.

I personally think that this is the movie where Will Ferrell was at the height of his powers and really where he hit comedy gold. I’m always going to enjoy Will Ferrell in almost everything he does, but looking at his filmography, this is the last film that he starred in that really went up there as one of my all-time favorites.

So what works about Step-Brothers?

First and foremost, the cast is phenomenal. I’ll talk about the pairing of Ferrell and John C Reilly but I want to mention the rest of the cast because it is really good. Steenburgen and Jenkins do a pretty good job just being the kind of parents that would put up with two insane people like their sons. They’re not the funniest people in the film, but they really do a good job at being the straight men and just dealing with the crazy antics of John C Reilly and Will Ferrell. 

Adam Scott plays Brennan’s younger brother, Derek, who is a lot more successful but is definitely a bully to Brennan and eventually Dale. This was Adam Scott before he got his role on Parks and Recreation so for a long time I could only imagine Adam Scott as the asshole he plays in this film which is a lot different than the really nice guy in

Parks and Rec. Kathryn Hahn plays Derek's wife who comically falls in love with Dale who seems to have never been with a woman before. And the rest of the cast is a lot of funny names but are in smaller parts. Rob Riggle is in the film, and Seth Rogen is in it oddly enough. I mentioned this in my review of Popstar that this is a movie that just utilized funny people before they really caught fire. And even in the case of Seth Rogen who had just started to be a big name, his cameo didn’t really take away from the film. It worked for what the film needed and he didn’t overstay his welcome. I don’t know when we started overusing cameos in movies but we definitely need to pump the breaks and fill those smaller roles with lesser known comedians or really funny actors.

But the real comedy gold in this movie comes from the pairing of John C Reilly and Will Ferrell. I was a little bit in the minority when Talladega Nights came out and people really started to love John

C Reilly. It took me a little bit of time to actually warm up to him because I wasn’t sure if I actually liked him. Looking back at this film 8 years later, I can’t help but really enjoy him and Ferrell together. I’m always going to love anything Ferrell does, but John C Reilly is a hilarious actor, who oddly enough does a lot of serious roles as well. The two of them together make a force to be reckoned with and it’s hard to find a duo that I have laughed harder from in recent movie history. The only one I can think is MAYBE Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. We’ll see if Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart get there, but Ferrell and Reilly will go down in history as one of the best comedic duos of my time.

As for the humor in the film, if you enjoyed movies like Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and movies like that, you’re going to feel right at home with Step Brothers. Reilly and Ferrell are very physical actors in this film and they do it really well. At the same time, a lot of the humor comes from how stupid these guys really are. There’s a scene where they are being forced to go get jobs and so they go to interviews. Not only to do they go and interview as a team, but they go in tuxedos. There is just so much about this movie that makes me laugh every single time.

I’ve honestly gotten to the point that I probably cannot review this movie without a bit of a bias because it has always been that go to movie if I’m looking for a solid comedy. I suppose the only complaint I have about the film is that it kind of leaves you wanting more. The story spans a period of time where Brennan and Dale are rivals and then they become friends and then they become rivals again and you just have to wonder how many fights they could have gotten into, how many hijinks they could have done as 40 year olds with the mindset of a 12 year old.

The really fun part about the movie is that these guys are clearly middle aged, there really isn’t anything to hide the fact that these guys are getting old and this was 8 years ago. But this film could have been about two teenagers who are forced to live with their step brother and you’d only have to change a few things. That is really what makes the movie funny and there is no end to the possibilities, especially with the fact that Reilly and Ferrell are two middle aged men.

The idea of a sequel for Step Brothers does worry me. We’ve had too many sequels that have come out years after the first one and it just failed miserably, Dumb and Dumber To, Zoolander 2, and most notably in this situation, the failure that was Anchorman 2. However, there is something about a Step Brothers 2 that I have a little bit of hope about that that is the duo of Reilly and Ferrell. Something about those two just gives me a lot of hope. On top of that, if they can recapture the 12 year old mindset they had in the first film, it doesn’t matter that they’ve gotten old because that was the joke in the first place.

I’m not totally sure if a sequel will happen and I’ll be honest, if it doesn’t happen I’m not going to be broken hearted. With all the horrible sequels that took too long to come out, I’m okay with Step Brothers not being added to that list. However, thinking about it and having watched it recently and my biggest complaint being that there wasn’t enough hijinks happening in this film, maybe Step Brothers is a perfect film that needs a sequel.

Overall, Step Brothers is one of my favorite comedies and definitely worth checking out if you haven’t in the 8 years it’s been out.

But what do you think? Did you like Step Brothers? Do you think it is too late for a Step Brothers sequel? Comment and Discuss below! I really want to hear people’s thoughts on this one. You can also send me your ideas and thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this.  Just to double tap the fact that these two are hilarious, here's an interview they did where they just talked unscripted to one another. Enjoy!