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I saw the comedy “Step Brothers” starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly a couple of weeks ago. It was ridiculously stupid with lots of fart jokes, body-part humor and an implausible plot. There was absolutely nothing intellectually or socially redeeming about it.
But it was hilarious.
No, this is not a movie I’d recommend to everyone. Some people probably wouldn’t find the duo’s penchant for old-school porn mags and four-letter words very funny. They definitely wouldn’t laugh during the scene where the brothers interview for a job, only to lose it when Reilly’s character releases a massive fart that would make Beavis and Butthead proud.
A few years ago, we may have seen a less crude, less rude version of this movie. The success of comedies like “Wedding Crashers,” “Old School,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up” has fueled a funny trend in Hollywood — movies that are proud to fly the flag of R-rated raunch.
This is a welcome trend for those of us who relish the days before PG-13 took over the multiplex. Movies like “Porky’s,” “Animal House” and “Bachelor Party” didn’t try to appeal to moviegoers with babysitting money. They went after adult audiences, even if the humor was immature.
The first widely distributed PG-13 movie was 1984’s “Red Dawn.” (Wolverines!) After that, movie studios saw the fiscal sense of appealing to a bigger audience. A whole generation skipped the rite of passage that was sneaking into an R-rated movie.
The result: 1984’s R-rated “Revenge of the Nerds” — hilarious. 1987’s PG-13 rated “Revenge of the Nerds II” — awful.
An R rating certainly doesn’t make a movie funny, but it does give writers the freedom to push jokes further. They don’t have to censor what they find funny.
But R stands for risk. “Step Brothers” director Adam McKay has said in interviews that studio execs predicted the movie would have a $30 million opening weekend rather than the $40 million it likely would bring in if it were rated PG-13. They were right.
Ferrell had starred in his share of PG-13 fare — “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.” Both did big money at the box office. Still, Ferrell missed having the laughs that other actors got in R-rated fare.
“We were like, ‘Gosh, everyone’s getting to have their cake and eat it, too, with ‘40-Year-Old Virgin’ and ‘Wedding Crashers,’” Ferrell said in an AP interview. “Just this little opening seemed to happen with the way the studios were willing to go, ‘OK, R-rated movies seem to be profitable, so we’ll maybe open that door a little bit.’”
For those looking for family-friendly movies, don’t worry. As long as those films continue to make money, you’ll still get the best Pixar and Disney have to offer. I’ll be watching those movies right along with my nieces and nephew. But they’re going to have to see something else while I see “Pineapple Express” and “Tropic Thunder.”
When the movie industry is doing its job, there are movies that all of us want to see. We just won’t see them together.
Contact Käri Knutson at
kknutson@winonadailynews.com or (507) 453-3523.
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