Title – Brothers (2024) 

Director – Max Barbakow (Palm Springs) 

Cast – Josh Brolin, Peter Dinklage, Taylour Paige, Glen Close, Brendan Fraser, M. Emmet Walsh

Plot – Petty criminals and twin brothers Moke (Brolin) and Jady Munger (Dinklage) partner up once more for the score of a lifetime when Jady gets released from prison under the watchful eye of shady cop Farful (Fraser).  

“Family is a life sentence”

Review by Eddie on 04/02/2025

With frequent commentary around the lack of mainstream comedy releases and what’s happened to the genre since its heydays throughout the 80s into the early 2000’s, films like the Amazon released Brothers aren’t going to do anything to increase the chances of quality products giving the renaissance a chance to succeed. 

Sadly directed by Palm Springs breakout director Max Barbakow, whose Covid hit feels like a world away from this stagnant and lifeless exercise, Brothers is a simplistic comedy venture centred around Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage’s twin brothers Moke and Jady who begrudgingly reunite when Jady gets out of prison with intentions of pulling off their greatest score yet as petty criminals. 

The type of set-up and scenario we’ve seen done countless times before to varying degrees of success there was hope somewhere out there in the cinematic universe that the presence of Brothers talented lead stars, with some fairly humiliating supports from screen legends Brendan Fraser and Glenn Close, was going to be enough to make Brothers at least slightly entertaining or fresh but neither the films actors, Barbakow or screenwriters Macon Blair and Etan Cohen give the film a chance to fly. 

Clocking in at a thankfully forgiving sub-90 minute running time, there’s not a lot of room for Brothers to grow tiresome or stay flat for too long in theory but in reality there’s nothing here that ever works to a level one would hope for with Brolin and Dinklage’s chemistry mid-tier at best, Barbakow’s direction uninspired and Cohen and Blair’s script bereft of any memorable jokes, with no amount of CGI orangutans or golf kart chases able to help the films mostly joyless cause. 

With the increasing prevalence of streaming services dabbling in these type of star-studded but mid-budgeted comedies, ones that appear in top-1o streaming charts for a few weeks only to disappear before we know it into the dark back catalogues of the virtual libraries, there’s a high chance the comedy heydays of Hollywood are a long way from returning as talented performers and makers give in to being a part of these sad and sorry attempts at low-hanging fruit. 

No doubt commentary will still remain strong about where the good big screen/high profile original comedies are following Brothers disappearance back into the void it came from with a rare one or two success stories emerging from the wilds per year if we are lucky but as long as there’s no accountability to meet a certain level of standards, more and more films like this forgettable and uninspired offering will be heading our way.

Best we learn to all avoid them. 

Final Say – 

Squandering some talented players both behind and in front of the camera, Brothers is a depressingly unfunny attempt at giving life to an oddball family caught in a hijinks filled venture, continuing on a sad and sorry recent trend of similar comedic streaming originals that paint a bleak picture of a barely surviving genre.

1 group of angry golfers out of 5