The Brothers Solomon: Dumb and Dumber of Surrogate Parent movies-pretty funny

* * * 1/2 (out of 5)


Saw the trailer for this movie back in the summer when I went to see Superbad. Others might have laughed in the theatre, but I was definitely laughing the hardest. It was filled with the kind of wrong humor we're used to seeing on Family Guy, but very rarely see in a live action film.

Two brothers who were raised and home-schooled by their father (Lee Majors) in the North Pole have descended on California and despite genius IQs and PhDs, have absolutely no social skills. Their attempts with women are laughable and then they get an idea. They want to have a baby, but what woman would want have it for them? Oddly, finding the surrogate mother is not the problem, but learning how to mature enough to be good fathers is. Their attempts at being good parents before the baby is born make up the bulk of the movie and its laughs. They buy one of those fancy dolls that's supposed to recreate the baby experience and these two yahoos drop it from four stories high to see if the other brother can "catch it", because jumping from heights is what babies do.

Directed by Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk, Saturday Night Live's Will Forte wrote it and plays Dean the "down to earth" brother. While Will Arnett (Gob from Arrested Development and Blades of Glory) steals the show as John the dreamer brother. Arnett is sort of handsome, but in a really creepy way. The originality of his performance will be something for me to enjoy again and again on cable in the coming years. He likes a girl in the next door apartment, so in one scene he knocks on her door to ask her out to dinner. Her real date shows up at the same time and while the scene is really awkward, John never loses his cool and he decides to dine alone, in the hallway, on the floor, with his candles, champagne, dinner jacket and shorts. It was like a Jerry Lewis moment, but without the annoying idiocy.

If you did not love Dumb and Dumber, you will definitely not like this movie, but for those who did, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.


The Freditor