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Step Brothers Is Full Of Shtick

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If the overwhelming feeling you get from reading the reviews of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly's latest two-hour poop, dick, and boob joke, Step Brothers, is that you've been here before, that's because you have. Directed by Ferrell pal Adam McKay and produced by comedy golden-boy Judd Apatow, Step Bros (which would have been a better title) is a trip down recycled-plot memory lane. There are adults acting like children, gratuitous profanity, and worst of all, pasty fat men running around in their underwear. All this adds up to one trite movie experience and a bunch of angry film critics, who don't take kindly to unoriginality:

"Will Ferrell's newest is a lot like Will Ferrell's oldest..."—Austin Chronicle

"Ferrell shows there's only so many times you can milk the same cow before the milk spoils."—Maryland Gazette

"We have two comedy veterans returning to their dumb-and-dumber shtick..."&mdashLos Angeles Times

"The fact that it's ground often traversed in Ferrell's movies and more recently, in co-producer Judd Apatow's movies, doesn't dampen anyone's enthusiasm or inanity. Rather, the repetition seems to up the ante..."—Pop Matters

"...[H]is shtick is clearly wearing thin..."—Las Vegas Weekly

"The core of the humor in Step Brothers—as it is in many Ferrell vehicle—is all about a grown man acting juvenile."—Variety

"His usual schtick — playing a deluded doofus—grows tiresome after a few minutes."—Visalia Times Delta

"After McKay and his crew thoroughly exhaust all originality in the setup, which occurs roughly 10 minutes in..."—filmcritic.com

"Ferrell and Reilly have played these kinds of doofuses so many times now that it's become old and feels stale."—Salt Lake City Desert News

"...[A]s if someone warmed up the comedy machine at the Apatow factory and forgot to sprinkle the heart and the teaspoonful of structure when they tipped in the three bags full of raunch, randomness, and recklessness."—Cinematical

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Apatow has always been a precious, man-child-writing hack. Where's the news here?

Posted by: Snakefinger on July 25, 2008 3:21 PM

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