andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

Here’s the thing about Will Ferrell: I feel like I can’t say anything bad about him. As someone with a former “Saturday Night Live” obsession, I hold him in the highest regards. I still do impressions of his “Zoolander” and “Anchorman” characters.

But the fact is, he hasn’t made me laugh much lately. “Talledega Nights” was a brutal, laugh-free couple of hours for me; “Stranger Than Fiction” was cute enough, but not laugh-out-loud funny; and I didn’t even bother seeing “Blades of Glory” or “Semi-Pro.”

So when I say that “Step Brothers” is good, I really mean it.

It follows, of course, two middle-aged losers living at home and eating it up, having never really mentally grown past middle school. Their sad situation bonds their single parents, and the men quickly become siblings.

There is the mandatory phase of hatred and fighting, which is a great mix of childish behavior and actual violence. Mary Steenburgen delivers a great performance that’s actually pretty endearing as Ferrell’s supportive but frustrated mother. Eventually, after mutually terrible blows to the head, the pair realize their similarities and become best friends, becoming an unstoppable annoying force. Together, they drive their parents absolutely insane, ruining their happiness. The boys are then forced to get their act together to save their family.

The movie delivers tons of temper tantrums, beatings, underage bullies, and classic Ferrell and John C. Reilly lines. The dialogue is completely ridiculous but Ferrell and Reilly commit to it fully. That being said, some of the funniest moments are when they bring it down a little. The best part of the movie for me was when the two are verbally sparring at the dinner table and Reilly throws back the comment, “That’s so funny, the last time I heard that I fell off my dinosaur!” Instead of an over-the-top reaction, Ferrell makes a tiny wince of pain.

Another great thing about the movie is that they actually let a girl in on the comedy action. Adam McKay movies – and really, all of the big comedies coming out these days – are huge sausage fests that really use women as decorations. The women are always pretty to look at but always look like they’re trying very hard to “act”, instead of just going for it. But Katherine Hahn goes completely, 100 per cent balls out. She plays their sister-in-law who becomes sexually obsessed with Reilly’s character after he punches her husband in the face. Hahn is just as committed and nuts as the leads, and delivers truly some of the funniest moments of the film. Her sex scene with Reilly, where she basically lifts her leg up and steals his virginity, is hysterical.

While I did thoroughly enjoy the movie, there are inevitably some moments that fail. Making a young kid use a gay slur, for example, just isn’t really comedy to me. Heads up on extreme language as well; just in the beginning of the film they manage to use a long list of curse words in about 90 seconds.

Overall, the movie is definitely funny, which is all that matters. The soundtrack is good, the outfits are amazing; the pacing and storytelling are very smooth, if a little pointless. And Ferrell and Reilly manage to add in just enough charm to make you not want to punch them in the face the whole time for acting like 10-year-olds in desperate need of some Ritalin.

“Office” star Jenna Fischer got a little raunchy in her recent MySpace blog about her new film “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”

Wrote Fischer: “[Walk Hard] is very raunchy and sexy and the humor is hard core. Think 40-Year Old Virgin but with full-frontal male nudity too. That’s right ladies, we have penis. There is a ton of nudity in this movie actually… I don’t get naked in the film… But I do showcase the ladies quite a bit. I had to be sewn into most of my costumes to make sure they were as tight as possible. My wardrobe assistant’s main job was making sure my boobs didn’t fall out. It was hilarious. I would see her across the room starring at my chest all day.

“I should also say that [my co-star] John Reilly is a great kisser. He sure knows his way around a lady. His wife is a VERY VERY lucky woman. Wow! And, he has a really nice ass. That is his real ass in the movie. Not a double. You’ll see what I mean.

“So please go see my boobs, John C. Reilly’s ass and a man’s penis starting tomorrow night…Walk Hard!”

Fischer said that she fit right in on a set full of potty-mouthed actors. “[In real life] I may not run around in raunchy outfits… but I do have a dirty/dark sense of humor. I loved that I didn’t have to censor myself in any way on the set. We were pretty crazy. We basically just made COX jokes all day. I was in heaven.”

On a serious note, Fisher also wrote about how much she admires Reilly, who learned over 30 original songs for the film and has been nominated for a Golden Globe for the role. “I’m so proud of him and sort of in awe. I’ve never worked with anyone like him before. He is classically trained and he approached this like any other movie. I look up to him a lot.”