Rating: 2/5
Anti-Criterion Challenge 2024 | 15/52 | Buddy film, but the buddies aren’t cops
Brennan and Dale are two adult men who live with their parents — a joke in 2008, a reality in 2024. When their single parents marry one another, the two become stepbrothers. The movie follows the ensuing antics as the two learn to hate one another less.
McKay emerged in improv with a focus on edits and film language, giving the imaginative form a clear structure in the audience’s mind.
He worked alongside the Upright Citizen Brigade founders to adapt their language to a TV format. UCB’s core philosophy is that improv should be indistinguishable from written material.
The divergence between McKay and the UCB is in the follow-up. UCB envisions a writer’s room where you improvise and transform ideas into written work. McKay’s movies refuse that marriage, insisting that they film the improvisations and edit it down to the best jokes.
Anchorman was a comedic revelation. This movie captured the essence of friends hanging out and improvising while maintaining a loose structure.
The movie Talladega Nights repeated the formula — also successful, but less so.
This movie was also massively successful. I heard every joke from this movie before seeing it today. It’s also lazy. Gone are the hangout vibes. Instead, we get insult comedy for two hours — its mean-spiritedness is infectious but doesn’t feel good.
Adam McKay and his friends would not learn any lessons until the complete failure of Anchorman 2. McKay transitioned to “important” movies to sustain his career.
Also, around that time, Facebook killed Funny or Die by lying about the reach of their video service. Funny or Die switched to Facebook and died in obscurity.
Anyway, this movie isn’t good. It’s got momentum for the first 20-30 minutes, but it collapses once they do the job-hunting montage. Also, it just isn’t my sense of humor.
But I’m happy to see Adam Scott and so many UCB folks.