The Apatow Machine chugs ever forward

Even with a mess of a story and some oft-repeated jokes, Step Brothers is further proof that the Judd Apatow Comedy Machine, America’s new shining hope for laughs, has no intention of going away with a whimper.

Never mind that Step Brothers can be an uncomfortable experience, one where the main characters are all in desperate need of some clinical evaluation. And not just the step brothers, those two goofballs who are grinning in a classic Sears pose on the movie’s poster; the parents of these nitwits are equally deranged for enabling 40-year-old sons to be middle-aged infants. The whole Freudian affair reminds me of those adult babies in their gigantic diapers and trailer-hitch pacifiers on The Jerry Springer Show. I remember thinking, "Now this is screwed up." But who's worse: the grown men who take dumps in their clothes or their "mommies" who agree to clean it up? Maybe Step Brothers has those answers.

Brennan’s mom has fallen for Dale’s dad and they marry, which means Brennan and Dale now have to share a room as step brothers. They’d have separate rooms but Dale won’t sacrifice his drum space, a room he calls the “beat laboratory.” So there they are: 40-year-old men lounging around in Spider-Man Underoos living like they’re still 11 — “Mom, make me a grilled cheese sandwich!” At one point they make bunk beds by nailing baseball bats and hockey sticks to their bed posts — “It looks exactly like something you’d buy from the store,” one of them says moments before it collapses.

Brennan is played by Will Ferrell, who acts very effeminate and sensitive, and appears almost fragile. Brennan is a momma’s boy to such a degree it’s amazing he has a bellybutton, if you know what I mean. His physical movements are those of a toddler, one of those kids that can walk but hasn’t yet figured out what to do with his arms or how to stand without looking unsure and nervous. Brennan sang once and his singing was so angelic it was compared to “Fergie and Jesus,” but we have reason to doubt this since his mother was doing the comparing.

Dale is played by John C. Reilly, who offers a macho-male contrast to Ferrell’s girlish Brennan. Reilly, whose comedy is as sharp as any comedian’s, proves his worth here yet again in a comedy, and yet again alongside Ferrell after Talladega Nights. That ridiculous face, those beady little eyes, that plump nose, that Huckleberry Hound voice … Reilly was chiseled out of flubber for the comedy world. And he did something very rare: I’ve never appreciated flatulence in the movies, but Reilly might have given me reason to hope.

Neither Brennan or Dale have a drivers license, and when Brennan rides in a car he rides in the back — all that’s missing is a booster seat and sippy cup. And neither have any adult clothes, either — although, each have shirts with howling wolves and unicorns — so when they go looking for jobs they hit the streets on 10-speeds and in borrowed tuxedos, one with tails and the other with a cummerbund. Of course, though, who would hire a 40-year-old who’s never worked, never went to school and comes to a job interview with his step brother in matching tuxedos? Even Wal-Mart — the same company that would promote the Rain Man as its vice president — might object.

The film is as much about the parents as it is the sons, to its detriment, too. Mary Steenburgen (she played Ferrell’s stepmom in Elf) and Richard Jenkins (The Visitor) are accomplished enough actors, but the film really clicks with the bizarre chemistry between Brennan and Dale, not so much their parents. If you’re like me, you’ll want to blame the parents for allowing themselves to raise boys so emotionally troubled. And Jenkins’ father character is given this maniacal urge to sail around the globe, which causes all kinds of problems when Brennan and Dale trash his sailboat in an attempt to film a music video. The video, titled something like "Bitches 'n' Hos," makes no sense to the characters, who up until this point are into rock music, or maybe Barney sing-alongs.

Step Brothers is very funny, supremely funny. It’s the kind of film that makes your stomach hurt from laughing. And yet there are still empty voids with humorless gags. One, for instance, involves the boys sleepwalking and turning the refrigerator inside out. Not only was the scene not funny once, but twice. A Chewbacca mask tops that with three appearances. There’s also a cruel scene with grade schoolers terrorizing grown men into tears that was more creepy than anything else. Finally, there was a sequence where Brennan pulls out a prosthetic nutsack and rubs its sweatiness all over Dale's treasured drums. If I've said it before then I'll say it again: no movie can benefit from a prosthetic nutsack.

My complaints for this movie echo those of director Adam McKay’s other films, Anchorman and Talladega Nights: the comedy can’t sustain the plot its written into. There’s just too much story and not enough energy to get through it all. Brennan and Dale’s dysfunctional relationship is about all Step Brothers can handle, but then it introduces more than that, like the dad's sailboat, Brennan's hot shrink, a brother who may have coined the phrase "mangina" and a helicopter company staffed by people who may have never seen a helicopater before. What this amounts to is a hilarious setup and middle, but then a dud ending.

Regardless, hooray yet again to Judd Apatow (Superbad, 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up) and his production company that produced Step Brothers. Even a mediocre Apatow film is better than any Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler or Mike Myers stinker. And as long as that’s the case, then he’s welcome to stick around a lot longer.

***This review originally ran in the West Valley View July 25, 2008.***