Cognati per caso

"Brother Nature" is reminiscent of countless comedies, ranging from "What About Bob" to "The Great Outdoors." It's one of those classic formulas where a straight-faced, straight-laced guy (in this case, Taran Killiam, from "SNL") encounters someone who is obnoxiously wacky and has a potential mean streak that no one else ever seems to notice (Bobby Moynihan, also from "SNL").

Killiam's character becomes more and more exasperated, and there are hints at times that Moynihan's character is deliberately sabotaging him a la "The Cable Guy." The first half is quite funny -- Killiam is a weak lead, but Moynihan is hilarious, and has a number of moments that made me laugh out loud.

But they don't really go anywhere with the idea that Moynihan is subversively destroying Killiam (the film seems to hint at it, and then promptly drops it); they also opt for a safe conclusion by fundamentally changing the nature of Moynihan's character, as, in the first half, he's an obnoxious goofball who no one would ever like, but towards the end he's suddenly a calmer, more sympathetic version of the same character, as if his apparently intentional attacks on Killiam earlier in the film never happened.

Whether this is studio intervention (the ending certainly seems like something that would be tacked on after poor test screenings), who knows, but ultimately this movie goes from a 7/10 to a 5/10 simply because its second half egregiously missteps and the movie is never able to recover from it.

Those early scenes with Moynihan, though, reveal great potential for the actor.

I liked it better when it was called Black Sheep. SNL writers should feel ashamed.

What can a middle age movie lover tell you about Brother Romance? I'll start with that I was immediately alarmed about the more than a passing resemblance to "The Great Outdoors" (TGO). A film about a man who goes to a cabin for a holiday only to find it ruined by a brother in law. Brother Romance is basically a remake, and, as with most of our current crop of remakes doesn't do it as well. Which is troubling, TGO is not exactly a classic (although I like it, John Candy is gold), meaning Brother Romance falls squarely in to the "meh" rating of films.

Acting and characters are in line with the genre. Generally scenarios are OTT and over played. The story line leans on plenty of clichés; Animal attacks, fart jokes, in laws messing things up, repentance of lead character. I could go on, but there's nothing more that needs to be said.

TGO is a better film, but being nearly 30 years old, probably won't hit the mark with younger audiences and I guess, Brother Romance will have to fill the spot to modernize lake based comedy of errors.

This film is genuinely funny, but not at all side-aching hilarious. The humor isn't forced down ones throat. There's plenty of laughs to be had and the film seems content to allow the audience to laugh at one thing or another rather than at designated points. I found a great deal of the humor weak and poorly conveyed, but there were certain things which I couldn't help chuckling. This one felt like the regurgitation of Meet The Fockers, from 2004. Lorne Micheals of SNL is the producer, he's a comedy master with a laughter resume spanning decades. Thus, I expected greater production value. It was good to see Keenan Thompson, a favorite of mine since childhood (Nickleodeon's All That). He had a very minor role but was easily recognizable despite the crazy hair-do that they gave him here.

Decent watch, could watch again, and can recommend.

Taran Killam, because of his time on SNL, tends to find his ways into roles he doesn't quite match. He's funny, he's a good actor, but he's not always quite enough of whatever he needs to be, in this case: likeable.

And on the opposite end, he's not enough of a control freak, he's kind of a bland middle ground. And he's supposed to be good enough, in some way, for Gillian Jacobs. The start of this movie literally looks more like a setup for the weekend where she dumps him than when he would propose. Though I guess they're not exclusive.

The Killam solution seems to be add someone who is a more infamous actor for being obnoxious, Bobby Moynihan. While Moynihan is good at what he does, I'm usually not a big fan of it: he's usually a lesser version of Chris Farley leaning on being more stupid than fat and physical.

I would imagine that Bobby's character would make almost anyone insane, but this is a long string of abuse humor rivalling "Duplex", and I would argue at a lesser quality.