The Chuckle Brothers
They first teamed up in Talladega Nights. It was funny. Now they’re starring together in Step Brothers. Lord have mercy on our souls…
At first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking that this partnership was total madness. On the one hand you’ve got John C Reilly, the Academy Award nominated actor, star of
Magnolia,
The Thin Red Line,
Gangs of New York — the Gene Hackman of his generation. And on the other we have Will Ferrell, star of
Saturday Night Live,
Anchorman,
Elf,
Starsky & Hutch — the character-driven improviser whose films’ plot-lines usually revolve around him getting a ‘reality check’.
Just what possessed Reilly to team up with Ferrell for the 2006 NASCAR romp
Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby is anyone’s guess. But team up they did and very glad we are.
It’s all about chemistrySomehow, it works. Maybe it’s because they’re not competing for laughs. Ferrell is clearly the comedian and this allows John C Reilly to be funny. Really funny. It also allows Ferrell to be serious occasionally. Which is even funnier than Ferrell trying to be funny. It’s all about chemistry and these two have cooked up a veritable laboratory of the stuff.
Attempting to reprise this unique relationship in their new film
Step Brothers, looks a tad cosy and opportunistic on the surface. Sure, they were great in
Talladega Nights but the smart money said they’d be best advised to leave it at that. Move on – meet ‘new’ people.
The premise for
Step Brothers doesn’t initially inspire you, either. Ferrell and Reilly play truculent 40-year-old deadbeats who still live with their parents. When those (single) parents fall in love and get married, Ferrell and Reilly are forced to live under the same roof, in the same bedroom. Even the trailer for the movie seemed a little predictable, so I wasn’t expecting all that much.
Hosed down By the time I’d left the cinema, however, I had to be hosed down.
Step Brothers is brilliant. I’m not sure when the last time I cried with laughter was, but I may well have been a much younger man. Which is what I felt like after watching this film.
Go see it at the movies before everyone you know is harping on about it so much about it that it makes you sick. Will Ferrell and John C Reilly, we salute you.
Story by Tim Southwell Step Brothers
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