Step Brothers (2008)
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Two immature men who still live with their parents are forced to become stepbrothers after their parents marry.
The story
Thirty-nine-year-old Brennan Huff and forty-year-old Dale Doback are immature adults who still live with their respective single parents. When their parents marry, the two men are forced to share a home as stepbrothers. The initial conflict arises from their inability to coexist, specifically over a shared bedroom and Dale's drum set. After a series of disputes and a confrontation with Brennan's arrogant younger brother, the two men begin to bond over their shared interests. However, they face a looming ultimatum from their parents: they must find jobs or face eviction, forcing them to navigate the complexities of their new domestic arrangement while dealing with their own arrested development.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Thirty-nine-year-old Brennan Huff and forty-year-old Dale Doback are immature adults who still live with their respective single parents. When their parents marry, they are forced to live together as stepbrothers. After a fight over Dale's drum set, their parents demand they find jobs or face eviction. The dynamic shifts when Brennan's arrogant brother, Derek, visits; Dale punches Derek, leading to a secret affair between Dale and Derek's wife, Alice. The men bond over music and a shared sense of arrested development. After a failed attempt to find work and a confrontation with bullies, their parents decide to sell the house and move to a boat, while putting the men in therapy. At a party, the men promote 'Prestige Worldwide,' a business that leads to a failed voyage and their parents' divorce. They move out and become more productive. Later, Brennan hires Dale for a large event, the Catalina Wine Mixer. During the event, a band quits, and the two men take the stage to perform, leading to a reconciliation between their parents and a resolution of their personal lives. Six months later, the parents have remarried and moved back in, while the men run Prestige Worldwide as a small karaoke business.
- First release year
- 2008
- Runtime (minutes)
- 98
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Adam McKay
- Writers
- Will Ferrell · screenplay; Adam McKay · screenplay; Will Ferrell · story; Adam McKay · story; John C. Reilly · story
- Cast and characters
- Will Ferrell · Brennan Huff; John C. Reilly · Dale Doback; Richard Jenkins · not specified; Mary Steenburgen · not specified; Adam Scott · not specified; Kathryn Hahn · not specified
- Genres
- comedy; buddy comedy
- Themes
- arrested development; masculinity; the pressures of adulthood
- Tone and mood
- absurd; vulgar; bold
- Premise and plot tags
- buddy comedy; family dynamics; petulant behavior
- Source material / true-story basis
- A single bunk-bed gag image.
- Content notes
- language
- Reception
- Mixed reviews initially, but it has since gained a cult following and been praised in retrospectives for its commitment to absurdity and its status as a comedy classic.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 51 · scale: 100 · review count: 33
- Production trivia
- The film inspired the real-world Catalina Wine Mixer event in 2015.; The script's first draft was approximately 180 pages.; The production used over 1.5 million feet of film stock.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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