| Audience: | Adult |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for crude and sexual content, and pervasive language. |
| Profanity: | Frequent extremely crude and strong language |
| Nudity/Sex: | Very crude sexual references, explicit sexual situations, adultery, people who do not know each other have sex immediately after meeting |
| Alcohol/Drugs: | Drinking, drug references |
| Violence/Scariness: | Comic violence, fighting |
| Diversity Issues: | None |
| Movie Release Date: | July 25, 2008 |
| DVD Release Date: | December 2, 2008 |
I have an idea for a movie comedy. A writer-director has a couple of huge hits and so all the Hollywood studio hacks descend on him adoringly. "Give us your ideas," they tell him, "Anything at all! We'll make a deal." So, just to get them to stop pestering him and perhaps also to make a payment on his new boat, he tosses out whatever pops into his head or pulls out some ideas he scribbled in a notebook back when he was in college and they write a big check and then they make the movies.
I promise, that would be a lot funnier than the result of one of those ideas, which is what we have in the latest from Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow. This one would have to sit in the oven for a couple more hours to be considered half-baked. Despite the success of "Superbad" and "Knocked Up," every movie about a childish boy-man who occasionally bawls "I love you man!" to his best friend is not entertaining.
As Will Ferrell gets older, the characters he plays get mentally younger. Here he is a 40-year-old man who lives with his mother and acts like he is 5. When his mother gets married to a man who also has a 40-year-old son living at home (John C. Reilly) the two of them instantly hate each other, then become devoted friends. It's like "The Brady Bunch" crossed with "My Fair Brady" and a little bit of "Breaking Bonaduce." Except not as good. Ferrell and director Adam McKay founded the acclaimed "Funny or Die" website. On this movie, I vote "die."
Buddy movies generally work best when the characters have distinct personalities that create contrast and conflict. They don't have to be likable but they do have to have some reason to get us on their side. But here the two emotionally and intellectually childish step brothers are so similar and so unappealing that we may not root for the (actual) child bullies who taunt and torture them but we can certainly see their point.
Parents should know that this film has constant extremely crude humor, very explicit sexual references and situations, pornography, drug references, drinking, very strong language used by adults and children, brief very explicit nudity, comic violence including beating up children
Family discussion: Is it funny to see adult men act like children? Why did Dale and Brennan change their minds about each other? Why did their parents let them stay at home?
If you like this, try: "Anchorman" and "Walk Hard"
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Nell.
I noticed in your review you did include that there is graphic nudity. However, in the main reviews I have been seeing as well as at the top of your review ,where it says rated "R," it does not mention nudity. Is there a reason for that ? Thanks
Thanks, Tim. I can put more detail in the review than in the shorthand summaries on top so it is always advisable to read both.
Thank you for that surprisingly funny post! I was on the fence as to whether or not to see it, but since I was so entertained by your review, I'll let that alone suffice:)
We decided to stream this one on netflix last night out of boredom. Worst. Movie. Ever. - we only made it through about 15 minutes before we declared it unwatchable (and we sat all the way through The Love Guru, so that's telling). Another case of my having a "why, oh why, didn't I check with Nell first" moment.
I feel your pain, Monkie! I had to watch the whole thing! Thanks for your comment, which gave me a bigger laugh than anything in the movie.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.