Mr. Movie: ‘Half Brothers’ is a misadventure in comedy
Half Brothers
“Half Brothers” is a road movie. It’s billed as a comedy/drama. It’s neither funny nor all that dramatic. Though most of the movie is done in English, “Half Brothers” is not an American release and comes to us via Mexico.
Renato loves and idolizes his dad. They do everything together and he contends they’re not father and son as much as they are pals. Mexico’s economy crashes in the mid-1990s and his father leaves for greener pastures in the U.S.
Dad never returns and they never see each other again.
Fast-forward to present day. Renato is wound up tighter than the proverbial eight-day clock and his bride-to-be says his tension is all based in his father not coming back. Then Renato gets a phone call and learns his now estranged father is dying. She urges him to go to the U.S. to set things straight.
He does and it’s there Renato meets his half brother, Asher.
Dad wants to explain to Renato why he didn’t return and can’t just tell him. This is where I have to stop my synopsis. If dad explained things you’d have a six-minute movie instead of one that runs 1:36 and you’d save yourself 90-minutes of boredom.
Instead of telling his two boys exactly why he didn’t return to Mexico, daddy sends the boys on a road trip. The explanation is in the clues at each stop. Of course, misadventures lie in the direction of the answer. Adding to the pressure, Renato has to return to Mexico in a few days for his wedding.
“Half Brothers” is directed by Luke Greenfield who did “The Girl Next Door” in 2004. Though it wasn’t all that hot, a porn star moving in next door to a high school kid is a lot funnier than a road movie. At least it’s an original idea.
The concept of “Half Brothers” was developed by Ali LeRoi and Edwardo Cisneros. The latter hasn’t done anything you’re likely familiar with but LeRoi is known for producing TV’s The Chris Rock Show, Everyone Hates Chris and TV’s Are We There Yet.
Cisneros got charged with writing the screenplay with Jason Shuman. His claim to fame is as an executive producer of the Mark Walberg war flick, “Lone Survivor.”
As I noted earlier, I’m not a fan of road trip movies. Before I move on and go back to “Half Brothers,” I will say there is one road picture that I love and that sits in my top-10 most favorite movies. And since we just left Thanksgiving, it deserves a mention. The film is 1987’s “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” with Steve Martin and John Candy. It’s the best both actors ever were and the best “Home Alone’s” director, John Hughes ever was. Though it’s rather dated, the film is flat out hilarious.
One more aside. Please don’t confuse this movie with 2008’s almost equally awful comedy “Step Brothers.” All that separates the two films is John C. Reilly and Will Farrell being better actors. Well, at least Reilly can make that claim. Farrell tends to play characters as stupid as that of unknown Connor Del Rio who plays one of the two half brothers.
By the way, while his co-star — and one of Mexico’s biggest stars, Luis Gerardo Mendez manages a decent performance — Del Rio is so bad that he’s likely to remain unknown.
▪ Rated PG-13 for mature themes and some language. It’s playing in theaters in some areas of the country and will soon be streaming online.
▪ Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5
Bad Santa
In the next few columns I’m going to review my four favorite Christmas movies. They will not be in any particular order. No doubt you’re wondering why four and not more. The reason is because I only have four favorites. Oh, and hint, hint, of the four, 1983’s “A Christmas Story” is not among them.
We start this week with “Bad Santa.”
This is Billy Bob Thornton’s best ever acting. Another absolute, no actor working back in 2003 could have pulled off the character. It’s the perfect vehicle for Thornton’s unique character acting skills.
And please, don’t confuse “Bad Santa” with “Bad Santa 2.” It’s as unfunny and as poorly done as the original.
Thornton is Willie and Tony Cox is Marcus. Every year they team up and play Santa and his best-buddy elf at a high end mall. Willie is one of the best safe crackers in the business and Marcus excels at getting them the job and casing the joint.
One big problem. Willie is also a raging alcoholic who is usually drunk on the job, tends to wet himself while sitting in Santa’s big chair and — worst of all — he hates kids.
Willie meets and then lives with the most pathetic kid character in any movie ever. He’s Thurman Merman. The particulars of the plot and how everything unwinds can be found online.
Thornton’s Santa has zero redeeming personalty traits and is the most disgusting Santa in history. Brett Kelly’s kid has the same issue. While you like and feel sorry for the boy, he is also the most pathetic child in any movie you’ll ever see.
“Bad Santa” is also John Ritter’s last film. He’s quite pathetic as a timid mall manager not quite capable of coping with a sick and twisted Santa and his dwarf helper. I think it’s also the best Ritter ever was and his scenes are hilarious.
Also good is the work of Bernie Mac as the mall’s head of security and Lauren Graham who checks in as the lady the kid calls, Mrs. Santa’s sister.
“Bad Santa” is directed by Terry Swigoff (“Ghost World”) and is written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa who penned the 2005 remake of “Bad News Bears.” Their second best film is the true-crime-based, “I Love You Phillip Morris” with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.
It’s almost as good as this one and worth checking out if you can find it.
The studio originally screened “Bad Santa” a few days before Christmas in 2003. I sat in a theater with 15 other critics. Two of us laughed. And we laughed a lot. That ought to give you a clue as to whether this one is for you. This one is pretty disgusting in spots.
Make that funny disgusting but disgusting nonetheless.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Thornton in 2006 about a different movie. It wasn’t all that good and I kept coming back to this one. He liked that I liked his performance and that I understood Willie and that I found “Bad Santa” to be a pretty good holiday movie.
And it is a good one.
Ultimately, “Bad Santa” is about redemption and about doing the right thing. Thornton is a skilled character actor who can do everything from heavy drama to silly comedy and while this won’t be the right thing for everybody, it is one of four films that I catch every holiday season.
▪ Rated R for language and mature themes. You can find this one online in some streaming services or purchase it from companies that sell DVDs.
▪ Rating: 5 out of 5
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: ‘Half Brothers’ is a misadventure in comedy."