Step Brothers is a 2008 comedy film distributed by Columbia Pictures. Some of its stars include Will Ferrell as Brennan Huff, John C. Reilly as Dale Doback, Richard Jenkins as Robert Doback, and Mary Steenburgen as Nancy Huff-Doback. The writers are Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Adam McKay. The director is Adam McKay.
Dale Doback and Brennan Huff are two roughly 40-year-old men who still live with their single parents. Their parents meet and get married, which means Dale and Brennan are forced to live with each other. Both are unemployed and immature. Although initially hostile towards each other, they come to realize that they share a lot of the same interests.
Step Brothers is, in my opinion, an old-fashioned slapstick comedy with much of what is today considered modern humor, like that involving sexual humor and coarse language. Many critics, including Roger Ebert, an old-time movie critic, claim that this film had a lot of potential except for the crude humor. As much as I don’t condone the use of such humor on a large scale such as this, this is what the modern era of comedy has come to. Common decency went “out the window” a long time ago. This is what modern-day movie viewers come to expect from a movie like this one. We’ve been seeing humor like this for so long, it just seems to fit this type of storyline. This is unfortunate, but true.
This film also shares an eerie similarity to another film released nine years prior starring Adam Sandler, Big Daddy. It is about a hopeless layabout who is constantly being pushed to find a full-time job and take some responsibility in his life. Step Brothers has the same concept, only with two men instead of one. Both films even share the appearance of the song, “Sweet Child O’Mine”. I would have to say that Step Brothers was heavily influenced by Big Daddy.
To wrap, if you like a comedy about two grown men who haven’t matured yet with some crude humor, then you will love Step Brothers.