by Brian Tallerico

STUDIO: Sony
RELEASE DATE: December 25, 2007
STARRING: Will Arnett, Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Malin Akerman, and Chi McBride
DIRECTED BY: Bob Odenkirk
WRITTEN BY: Will Forte
FEATURES: Commentary with Will Forte and Will Arnett
The Fine Art of "Creating Specimen"
The Making of The Brothers Solomon
Deleted Scenes
Outtakes

 

Your enjoyment of The Brothers Solomon is going to come down to two things - your tolerance for Dumb & Dumber-style comedy and how much you like the unique comedic timing of Will Arnett (Gob from Arrested Development) and SNL's Will Forte. They're weird, but it somehow works for the material in The Brothers Solomon, an undeniably flawed comedy but a better one than a lot of the junk that made millions at the box office this year. Arnett and Forte play two brothers who were home-schooled in the Arctic. They don't have what you would call social skills, but they're trying to grant the dying wish of their father (Lee Majors) to give him a grandson. Think of it as "Knocked Up meets Dumb and Dumber". It's not nearly as funny as either, but it has more surreal laughs than you might expect.

Fifteen minutes of deleted scenes actually features some material that's funny enough that it should have been kept in the movie. Arnett dropping children's dolls off a roof to a waiting Forte to try and practice child safety is a funnier bit than several of the scenes that made the final cut. It would have been nice to have a commentary of introduction to explain why some of these moments were left on the editing room floor.

You won't find a bigger Will Arnett fan than me. I sat through the abysmal Let's Go To Prison because I loved Arnett so much in Arrested Development and I still defend him despite his poor career decisions, but his commentary with Forte is as dull as they come. Neither Will seems like they want to be there, pointing out things that we can already see and leaving giant pauses in their commentary. Advice to DVD makers - don't force actors to do a commentary track if they don't want to.

The Brothers Solomon has too many dull spots to give it a hearty thumbs up, but if you like your humor a little left-of-center, it's odd charm might work for you. It's certainly better than Let's Go To Prison.

-- Brian Tallerico

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