Director: Adam McKay
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 2.5
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly - in their 40's but still living with their parents, jobless and trapped in some psychotic adolescent dream world of ninjas, sharks and Hulk Hands - oppose one another when their (respective) single parents wed, only to realize they have a lot in common: namely, being flaky man-children. There's a sly, deeply sarcastic undertone to this about the prevalence of Peter Pan Syndrome among American males who refuse to establish independent lives for themselves (and, apparently, some Italian males - they're called "mammoni") and the inability of their parents to effectively 'shake them' out (essentially making them 'enablers'), but it's also incredibly low-brow - and for Ferrell, altogether familiar - and base, going for the easy gag more often than not. The ending suggests that there could be middle ground between conformist monotony and infantile pleasure - a karaoke business? - although bridging that gap (waking up every day and doing something you love) is, for most people, a virtual impossibility (that is, unless you're Will Ferrell or Adam McKay).
