“Step Brothers”Is a Show Filled with Laughter

Struggling to grow up is something that almost everyone can relate to. Whether people get kicked out at 18, or get to stick around their parents until their mid-20s, at some point, almost everybody goes out on their own point. For most, they leave home before the age of 27. However, that is not the case for the main characters of the movie “Step Brothers”.

“Step Brothers” is an extremely wild comedy, with a joke on every corner. It keeps the audience intrigued and laughing the entire time. Right off the bat, one can expect to hear laughter throughout the audience as Dale Doback reaches into what one can only assume is his dirty clothes hamper. He pulls out a pair of underwear and smells them to see if they’re clean enough. The plot follows Dale and Brennan, both about 40 years old and living with their single parents. That is until their parents get married, and they are forced to move in together. This automatically brings threatening tensions into the plot, and from there it only goes up.

The setting/props really shows you the house situation in a clear way. The little details like how Dale’s music has only one corner of the wall painted very badly painted. That just shows people how irresponsible and lazy he is. Even Brennan’s brother Derek has a leather jacket, perfect sideburns, and a Bluetooth earpiece, so you just know he’s a “douchebag”, as Brennan calls him. The score could not have been more perfect. When there’s an exciting moment, an upbeat “You Make My Dreams” by Hall and Oates could be playing, and when the characters are feeling confident, you have a strong hip-hop song playing in the background. The main song that anyone will remember from this movie is “Boats ‘N Hoes”, sung by the two main characters, which basically speaks for itself.

The other thing that this movie really got right was the cast. Will Ferrell plays an insecure man-child named Brennan, and he is the exact person I would picture when I think of a grown man that won’t grow up. John C. Reilly portrays his counterpart, Dale, who is extremely cocky, especially when it comes to Brennan. Their first dinner together ends in an ugly cry because Brennan can’t handle the jokes that Dale makes. These two are very childish, almost too childish for some. One article says “ It’s the kind of thing that might sound funny in a pitch meeting but, put into action, there’s not enough laugh-generating material here to fill a bad SNL skit.” (Berardinelli par.2). However, this plot would not work if anyone else were doing it. If you had two kids saying these provocative, crude lines, it would not have been accepted by society. Another article says “ if Step Brothers were played exactly the same, but with kids cast in the lead roles rather than two hairy olds, it’d scan as a psychologically astute horror movie” (Marchese, par.5). Ferrell and Reilly are the only people that can be so goofy in one film and still have their careers taken seriously.

Step Brothers is the most quotable movie I have ever seen. Just last week, I randomly shouted at my friend “I got a belly full of white dog crap, and now you lay THIS SHIT on me?!” The language in this film is extremely provocative, so I do not recommend it for young people. The characters can also be very inappropriate and sometimes offensive, but it was somewhat acceptable back then. If you don’t go see this movie, then you don’t like laughing until you can’t breathe. It is available with a subscription to Netflix.

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