Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Odenkirk rocks, I never explored ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, but I'm sure that'll happen soon, so I'll give a pass to Forte. So, this flick, BROTHERS SOLOMON, is high on my "interest" chart, but the below review isn't very complimentary. Keep in mind that this is a test screening of an unfinished film. I think they just finished photography a month or so ago, so this is probably the first assemblage, the first cut. All genres rely on great timing, but it's especially true of comedies. The right timing can make or break a comedy like no other genre. So, keep that in mind while reading the below! Enjoy!
Guys, I was able to catch a work in progress screening of ‘The Brothers Solomon,’ with Will Forte and Will Arnett down in Orange County last night. Let me say first off I am a plant since someone in the talkback always has to make that claim (I hope it makes things easier for them). Well, I’m not sure where exactly where to start, but this movie is like a poor man’s ‘Dumb and Dumber.’ It tries to be ‘Dumb and Dumber.’ It tries to be ‘Anchorman.’ ‘Night at the Roxbury.’ Hell, the list goes on. It even tries to be ‘Dumb and Dumberer.’ And while I haven’t seen that film in its entirety, it isn’t even that. I didn’t really like the two main characters (I guess one is the main star from Arrested Development – but I have never seen the show – hear it’s great though) and for every funny scene they had four or five flat ones preceding it. It’s almost as if they know there jokes are bad, and they try even harder the next scene to make up for it. And halfway through I started drifting off thinking about better movies such as the ones mentioned above. “I’m kind of a big deal…” Anywho, the movie is about two dimwitted, nearly incapable and possibly retarded brothers who are unlucky with girls. Like really bad. Like they can’t even pay to get laid. We open with one of the brothers picking up a date and then smooching the dad as a sign of respect. And the other is paying for women’s groceries in hopes of scoring a phone number. I was hooked at that point and then the story came into play where their father is terminally ill and his last dying wish is to be a grandfather. So the two go off on a very unfunny adventure trying to impregnate large women, attempt to adopt a child together, and eventually find a surrogate mother which takes up the entire second and third act. So it’s really about the two brothers trying to become adults, grow up, bond, etc. And the only thing that kept it going was Chi Mcbride’s performance as the surrogate mother’s boyfriend. He was hilarious but unfortunately just a side gag character who pops up for a laugh every now and then. The soundtrack and feel of the movie makes it try to be a 80’s comedy, and I would say they could salvage something out of this mess by cutting out some of the middle to pick up the pace a little, but that would only make the 88 minute movie a 75 minute one. The girl I was with enjoyed the movie and gave it a high rating, which I was appalled by only because she hated ‘Anchorman’ but somehow found enjoyment in this doomed to be direct to VHS (not worthy of DVD) excuse for a motion picture. I mean, movies like these are the reason the box office is in a slump. But I would also like to point out the girl I was with hated ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ (one of my favs from ’05) and said she would never watch this movie again nor recommend it nor pay to see it. But it’s still a ‘very good’ movie. I know. I don’t get it either. The test screeners must be scratching their heads right now. So, all in all, this movie was pretty terrible. I love comedies with little to no plot, but they need to be funny enough to carry me to the end. This movie had me for about five minutes. Best of luck to Screen Gems (The studio best known for the’ Underworld’ and ‘Resident Evil’ flicks) on what may be their first comedy (someone please correct me if I’m wrong.) Please call me Trinkie… Jo will get it. That is all.
