Word: brennan
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...meet at a medical conference and instantly fall in lust. One a widower, the other a divorcée, the two get married and move into his place. The catch is that each of the newlyweds has a wayward, layabout son who's near 40: Dale Doback (Reilly) and Brennan Huff (Ferrell). Seemingly deficient in intelligence, and lacking the most rudimentary of social skills, Dale and Brennan feel hate at first sight as quickly as their parents found love. Their resentment comes from territorial rivalry, but even more the fear that their comfortable situation, of being the sole object...
...sort of improbability that is waved away in comedy plots. Or maybe it's part of the larger conceit that all narratives are simply the clothes hangers for splendid jokes, most of which are thrown on the closet floor anyway. After a lot of sparring and territory-marking, Brennan and Dale realize they're soulmates, agreeing on nearly everything including which guy they'd want to have sex with if they were a chick. (Together: "John Stamos!") Their parents are still flummoxed by the boys' now-cheerful immaturity - Robert and Nancy's sighs are an extended joke on the smiling...
...their wavelength, the functioning world is the one operating on false values. In Step Brothers that world is represented by Brennan's brother Derek (Adam Scott), a preener and underminer whose sabotaging of a Brennan musical performance back in high school was our hero's defining trauma. Now Derek has a couple of kids so impeccable, they hardly appear in the movie, and a wife, Alice (Kathryn Hahn), whose cooped-up loathing of Derek propels her into the loins of a very surprised Dale. But Derek is just here as the villain, and Alice to wean Dale out of babyhood...
...That's Dale to Brennan and Brennan to Dale. Even in their hate phase, they're more alive assaulting each other with rakes and golf clubs, or instituting a premature burial, than they ever were alone, sitting home masturbating to the exercise lady on TV. The lightbulb of enlightenment clicks on: we'll smack each other silly, and then we'll channel our rage into the vanquishing of our enemies. The little guy will defeat the big guy; the child will vanquish the adult...
...Supreme Court sanctioned the judicial shortcut by voting 6-3 not to stay the execution Conservative Justice William H. Rehnquist had long sought a way to speed up the pace of state executions; he now found help from the newest justice, Sandra Day O’Connor. Justices Marshall, Brennan and Stevens protested the decision: “The court of appeals... still has not acted on the merits of the [Brooks] appeal...