In The Brothers Solomon, Will Arnett, the goofball older brother in Arrested Development plays, erm, the goofball older brother. A prime idiot of the duh-not-Dostoevsky variety, he and his even dimmer sibling (Mr. Forte, who also wrote the script) happily spend their days obliviously repelling the opposite sex.
That changes when their dear old dad (Lee Majors!) falls into a coma. His dying wish? A grandchild. He might have well have asked for the moon. Mr. Arnett’s seduction technique involves open-mouth kissing a prospective date’s father to, you know, break the ice. There’s nothing for it but surrogacy and the chaps quickly enlist the services of their SNL (of course) co-star Kristen Wiig and the nearest artificial insemination facility.
“You mean some scientist gets to do all the fun stuff?” asks the stoopider of the pair. And so on.
The spoof factor runs high with ‘Almost Paradise’ and the theme to St. Elmo’s Fire blaring on the suitably overstated soundtrack. Sadly, The Brothers Solomon can’t quite strut its high concept stuff alongside Team America: World Police or the recent Hot Rod. Nor is it quite stooped enough to match the intellectual impairment of something like The Jerk.
Still, even if the hit-and-miss factor falls into an awkward 7-10 split, it’s hard to dislike Bob Odenkirk’s film. If the day arrives when you can’t laugh at a lazy-arsed joke based around sperm in a cup, well, it’s time to go be an accountant.
Me, I’m staying right here on Planet Puerile with a stack of sucky comedies like this one.