Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Brennan Huff is a sporadically employed thirty-nine-year-old who lives with his mother, Nancy. Dale Doback is a terminally unemployed forty-year-old who lives with his father, Robert. When Robert and Nancy marry and move in together, Brennan and Dale are forced to live with each other as step brothers. As their narcissism and downright aggressive laziness threaten to tear the family apart, these two middle-aged, immature, overgrown boys will orchestrate an insane, elaborate plan to bring their parents back together. To pull it off, they must form an unlikely bond that maybe, just maybe, will finally get them out of the house.

Judd Apatow has been a bit of a hit or miss with me. I love his sex comedies but all of the more absurd efforts like Talladega Nights, Walk Hard, and this one just don’t do it for me. Don’t get me wrong, there is some really funny stuff here; but I like films that don’t have to try a lot to get a laugh. I like it when the humor of the moment is a bit more relatable than 30-somethings living at home with their parents and fight over stuff that even 15-year olds don’t even fight over. If you loved the movies I mentioned before you really shouldn’t miss this one, but I’m just not that entertained.

Sony delivers a solid HD presentation for this one. The image has a very punchy color quality with primaries leaning a bit toward yellow at times. Fine detail is excellent and the image retains a very high level of dimensionality. Contrast levels are good but black levels tend to be slightly raised at times.

Comedies are generally pretty average when it comes to sound design and this is really no exception. The film’s soundtrack selections do open up the soundstage at times but for the most part this is a dialogue driven film. Tonal balance in that regard is excellent and I was impressed with the quality of the ambiance the track displays. Low bass creeps in on occasion but this is not a very dynamic mix overall.

This two-disc edition is absolutely loaded with extras. Sony has included a boatload of featurettes that are all themed to the film and add to the overall experience. This includes more music, pranks and therapy. You also get a look at the production with interviews from the cast and crew. There are a lot of deleted scenes, gags and extended scenes to go through and you can even make your own music video for the film’s “Boats ‘N Hoes” track if you have a BD-Live enabled player. A feature commentary and trailers are also included.

While Sony has delivered an outstanding presentation and extras package for this one, the movie itself just didn’t do anything for me. But I’ve never been a big fan of these types of comedies. If you love this type of humor I don’t think you can go wrong here.