Little Brother
"Little Brother" starts rough, is filthily funny and finds its heart in the third act, but it's too little, too late.
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I rewatched David Wain’s hilarious “Role Models” as “research” before becoming a Big Brother to MarShon in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program nine years ago.
Now that MarShon and I have graduated from the program (it’s one of the best and most meaningful things I’ve ever done with my life and I can’t recommend it highly enough) I figured I’d give Matt Spicer’s “Little Brother” (streaming on Netflix beginning Friday, June 26) a look.
Rudd Landy (Maximo Salas) was a Big Brother to Marcus Pinchel (Christopher Woodley) in the Big Brother-Little Brother program 30 years ago. Rudd volunteered as he thought it would look good on a college application, but didn’t take it very seriously, only hung out with Marcus a few times and often opted to chill with his actual brother Josh (Colter Ford) instead.
Rudd (now played by John Cena) is married to Dierdre (Michelle Monaghan), has two teenage sons Cory (Bryce Gheisar) and Shane (Pilot Bunch) and is a successful New York City realtor who’s about to make his debut on a popular reality show produced by Lenore (Ego Nwodim) and Olly (Caleb Hearon). This is all very good and well and impressive, but Rudd remains in the shadow of his hedge fund billionaire brother Josh (now played by a game Christopher Meloni).
Rudd doesn’t remember Marcus (now played by Eric André), but Marcus sure as shit remembers Rudd. So much so that he opts to escape from the mental institution where he’s staying in hopes of reuniting with his Big Brother.
“Little Brother” starts rough, but admittedly gets better as it goes along. It’s filthy - there’s a graphic gag about cuckolding, André’s Marcus pisses in his own face and mouth and there’s a bit that recalls the “Frasier” theme song, but it’s a whole lot more tossed salad as opposed to scrambled eggs. The fact that the act is being performed by Monaghan’s character on Cena’s character could prove really funny as it’d look like she was simply eating air.
“Little Brother” doesn’t hit the heights of Cena’s earliest comedic efforts (namely “Trainwreck” and “Blockers”) nor the inspired André vehicle “Bad Trip.” It’s also nowhere near as interesting as Spicer’s previous movie “Ingrid Goes West.” I’d say it’s qualitatively similar to Cena’s so-so “Vacation Friends” flicks and a marked improvement over the putrid “Ricky Stanicky.”
I really enjoyed Sherry Cola (late of “Shrinking”) as Rudd’s assistant Mia who’s got a huge crush on Marcus. Their shared gag about the band Hoobastank is pretty funny and pays comedic dividends.
“Little Brother” finds its heart in the third act and it’s better for having done so, but it’s also a case of too little, too late. I can certainly understand why Big Brothers Big Sisters wouldn’t want their name associated with the project.