Brothers plus Short Takes on some other cinematic topics

Brotherly Love … Sort Of

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

11/6/2024 In Memoriam: Farewell to what I’ve for (too) long thought were the enduring, decent values of the U.S.A.; I’ll also mourn the loss of sanity in many of the deluded American electorate.  Oh well, back to the irrelevant issues this blog was intended to address, beginning with a silly movie.

             Brothers (Max Barbakow)   rated R   90 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

 Fraternal—but vastly different—twins, Moke (Josh Brolin) and Jady (Peter Dinklage) Munger—not their actual given names, but these mistaken pronunciations from their early-childhood days seem to have stuck—come from a line of criminals, including their mother, Cath Munger (Jennifer London), who drove away with her lover, Glenn (Joshua Mikel), 30 years ago, seemingly disappearing from their lives forever.  I forget how these getaways had possession of some stolen emeralds, but those gems set the rest of this plot in motion as Glenn swallowed them as the pursuing cops closed in although Cath managed to elude them even as Glenn suddenly died.  She dumped his body into a sort of freshly-dug grave in a field (?), hid herself, mostly in Mexico, for decades.  Meanwhile, the brothers were in the midst of a heist when other cops almost caught them, yet Moke escaped as Jady was sent off to prison.  However, he got out early due to a plot by corrupt guard Jimmy Farful (Brendan Fraser) and his even-more-corrupt Dad, Judge Farful (M. Emmet Walsh in what seems to be the final role prior to his passing earlier this year) to retrieve the emeralds, sets it up so Moke can’t get hired at a fast-food franchise (due to his past convictions) so the brothers team up again for one last job, despite Moke trying to go straight, especially with a wife, Abby Munger-Jacobson (Taylour Paige), and baby.  Then things get more complicated when Moke finds Mom’s been writing letters to Jady in prison so the guys end up meeting with her, despite Moke’s anger at both of them.

 Nevertheless, after some bottomless margaritas in a karaoke bar they reconcile, head off to get the emeralds as Cath (now played by Glenn Close) knows the location’s now a golf course.  On the way, though, Jady wants to visit a woman who also corresponded with him, Bethesda Waingro (Marisa Tomei)—shares her home with Samuel, a cigarette-smoking orangutan—resulting in a stolen I.D. badge from her allowing them to get access to heavy equipment needed to dig up Glenn’s long-decomposed-body.  Moke finally gets up the gumption to reach into the gut cavity to retrieve the emeralds, followed by a chase from some golfers angry about their torn-up fairway, then Mom absconds with the jewels, takes them to a fence for a $4 million payout.  Eventually, her boys catch up with her, lawmen (including Jimmy) chase all of them to an empty mall, she volunteers to give herself up so the sons can get away.  ⇒Moke takes half of the cash to the judge (Jimmy died in a burning Xmas tree in the mall—don’t ask) in exchange for a gun with Jady’s prints on it, a clear parole violation, but then finds Jady gave the other half away setting up a trust fund for Moke’s baby.  As this all wraps up, the boys and Abby visit Cath in prison, then as they’re leaving we learn (as best I recall it; I try to treat these streamers like in theaters with no rewind to verify anything) there were a few other stones that had been secretly swallowed by Cath, then passed on to Jady.⇐ Admittedly, there’s a lot of intentional silliness in this movie, but it’s entertaining to watch with all of the big-named-stars holding up their end of the bargain quite well, along with other actors in solid support.

 So, here I am again with something for you that’s been panned by the OCCU, with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 41%, the Metacritic average score at a surprisingly-higher 50%; however, that’s based on only 22 responses from the former, a mere 10 for the latter, and while that may be enough votes to determine the U.S. Presidency in a purple battleground state it’s not a very big sample for assessing the quality of a movie,  so I say you can trust me as much as you might trust these other critics.  (Really, how often have I been wrong?  Oh, well if you’re going to go by “fake media” facts, then anything might be possible!)  I mainly watched it due to a vote by my viewing companions (beating out a long-overdue re-screening of All the President’s Men [Alan J. Pakula, 1976—which, along with Network {Sidney Lumet, 1976}, would have led to tough choices from me for that year’s Best Picture Oscar, with either being better than the actual winner, the not-bad-but-not-superior Rocky {John G. Avildsen, 1976}], which my wife, Nina, and I did watch last Saturday as a reminder justice can come to Presidential abuses so we’d be sure to have something to feel good about as the reality of Election Day 2024 came upon us).  I had no problems with the choice, though, given my curiosity to see what kind of vehicle these top performers had entered into, with a decent sense of satisfaction about what transpired.  Nevertheless, you might be thinking “Haven’t I seen this movie before?,” a reasonable thought given the prior existence of Twins (Ivan Reitman, 1988) also about fraternal twin siblings, one (Arnold Schwarzenegger) noticeably bigger than the other (Danny DeVito), $4 million worth of stolen stuff, and the sons' mother missing from their lives for years.  Otherwise, there are a lot of differences between these 2 movies, but I have to wonder how much—if any—inspiration the older one might have provided for storywriter Etan Cohen (not to be confused with another notable brother, Ethan Coen, even though Brothers in many ways does resemble some of the kind of tales the Coens have long been associated with) and screenplay author Macon Blair.

 As to how Brothers compares with Twins I’ll have to plead “no contest” because it’s been far too long since I’ve seen the latter, but it did make lots of cash ($216 million, a huge amount that long ago) for all concerned even though it too was castigated by the OCCU (RT 42%, MC 50%). Sorry, but I can’t offer you the option for a comparison because while Brothers is free to Amazon Prime Video subscribers (or you can get 30 days free, $8.99 monthly after that if you like) Twins doesn’t seem to be available for streaming, even as I vaguely remember enjoying it.  What I’m even more vague about, though, is a reasonable choice for my usual review-ending-tactic of a Musical Metaphor which hasn’t connected for me yet (suggestions in the Comments box very far below are always welcome, even if a better choice needs to be an after-the-fact edit in this posting), so I’ll just go with Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou” (on his 1963 In Dreams album) at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=HiMl4yX1JiA, which basically has nothing to do with the events of Brothers, but the filmmakers used a bit of it in their soundtrack toward the end (maybe referencing Moke, Jady, and Mom Munger’s dreams of better days in the future … maybe) so if they can incorporate it so can I; plus, for me, it’s never a waste to hear Roy’s gorgeous voice again (yeah, I know, Linda Ronstadt had an even bigger hit with it, but I’m going with Roy here) in marvelous memory of seeing him live once, in Houston about 1965.  If you ever “feel so bad,” you’re “so lonesome all the time,” I hope you can someday be “Looking forward to happier times” when “dreams come true” wherever you may be.

          

SHORT TAKES

               

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:   

Some options for your consideration: (1) What's new on Netflix in November 2024; (2) What's new on Amazon Prime Video in November 2024; (3) What's new on Hulu in November 2024; (4) What's new on Disney+ in November 2024; (5) What's new on Max in November 2024; (6) IMDb Staff Picks for November 2024 in theaters and streaming; (7) 24 movies new to steaming in November 2024; and (8) IMDb's 5 Things to Watch in the week of 11/04/2024. 

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