From the start, Brennan (Will Ferrell) and Dale (John C. Reilly), two adults forced to live with each other after their single parents marry, have it out for each other. Because space is limited, they have to share a room, and on their first night together, they threaten each other with extreme forms of bodily harm before falling asleep. Initially, it’s all good, foulmouthed fun, with Ferrell and Reilly delivering the physical comedy and offbeat antics for which they’re known and really reveling in the fact that they get to play characters who never matured into adults. It all comes to a screeching halt when the two make up due to their mutual hatred for Brennan’s younger brother Derek (Adam Scott), a successful sales guy. While the language and sexual situations push the film’s R rating in ways that would make John Waters proud, it all grows a bit tiresome by the film’s end, especially since many of the jokes seem lifted from other comedies associated with Judd Apatow (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up), who serves as the film’s producer. **1/2
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2008.
