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Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage are criminal twin brothers on the heist road trip of a lifetime, pulling off one last score before calling it quits. It’s a premise from 2005, but could it still work?
Jady (Dinklage) is a career criminal who cut his teeth planning heists with his twin brother Moke (Brolin). Jady is in prison, while Moke is trying to reform himself as a family man. Upon his release, Jady convinces Moke to go on a road trip for one last score, a multi-million stash of emeralds.
Brothers (2024) – source: Amazon Prime Video
With their overbearing mother Cath (Glenn Close), an orangutan named Samuel, and a sadistic policeman (Brendan Fraser) in tow, these wacky brothers must pull off the score of a lifetime… if they can stand each other long enough to make it there.
Given the talent involved, including the famed writer of dark comedies Macon Blair (I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore), the 1st trailer for Brothers leans decidedly more kid-friendly than expected. The comedy feels goofy and gross-out, going for Nickelodeon-esque overacting and slapstick rather than the darker wit that the lead actors have historically cut their teeth in. Brolin particularly stands out, offering a wimpy dithering performance that he can’t quite pull off. The man’s just too tough looking.
The punchlines, such as erotic noises being a fake fight between lovers, don’t land with the punch the trailer aims for, because the pacing feels a hair too slow to sell the film’s wackiness.
Yet, the writing lacks the tightness of an engaging heist film, and the wit needed to sell a dark character-based comedy. It’s just a bare-bones road trip film leading to a MacGuffin. If that’s the route you want to go, your characters must be damn engaging. And these characters…. aren’t.
Directed by Max Barbakow, Brothers will be released on Prime Video on October 10, 2024. The film stars Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage in the lead roles.
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