Futile "Brothers Solomon" Appreciation Thread

[priceyeah]

I saw the second half of "Brothers Solomon" about a month ago and I found it very funny. Then I saw the first half and..... well, the second half is funnier but I still liked it a lot. Will Arnett is a goddamn powerhouse. I was tempted to say I liked it more than "The Hangover," which I had just seen a week or so earlier.

Then, in my naivete, I went to Rotten Tomatoes to see what people thought about it. Whoa, 16%! One of the most hated movies of recent years! Apparently this is a movie that makes the likes of Richard Roeper want to injure the people responsible (yes, he said that).

I totally did not see that coming. Huh.

I guess that partly explains why there's no thread on AST for it.

I don't know-- I found this much, much funnier than "Step Brothers," a similar movie that came out a bit later. There's a purity to "Solomon" that was lacking in "Step Brothers," I thought.

Now that I've seen all the bad reviews, I can honestly say I can recognize the flaws, the drifty plotting, the undynamic supporting cast, .... it isn't that good a movie, conventionally speaking. I'm not that stubborn.

But I'll tell you, No comedic actor ever earned a paycheck as thoroughly as Arnett did there, and I think he ended up creating something funnier than any single element of a lot of other comedies that didn't make people want to assault the writers. And Forte has his moments too.

Just putting it out there.

[Aaron1933]

When it tanked, I was worried Will Forte wouldn't be able to make another movie, which is why I'm thankful for and hopeful for the success of MacGruber. But yeah, I really liked The Brothers Solomon. It's one of a few under-appreciated comedies of recent years which is incredibly weird and goofy and full of non-sequiters and incomprehensible behavior and, for the most part, disregard for conventional movie rules, and of which I am a huge fan.

Tim Heidecker wrote a really good defense of this movie when it came out:

Our friends Bob Odenkirk and Will Forte made this movie. This movie got absolutly raped and pissed on in the press. Check out Rotten Tomatoes.com. And it's disgusting and wrong. This movie has more laughs than any movie I've seen in a long time. Is it stupid? yes. Is it flawed? yes. Is is silly? yes. yes! Thank God for a scrappy comedy with JOKES!! There are actual JOKES in this movie.

And Forte. Forte is a revelaation in this movie. THere are moments in SNL where you get a peek at what makes this guy so talented and funny. But it's on full display here. THere is so much weird heart and sincertly and total commitment in his character through every second of the film. It remided me of the best of Steve Martin or even Gene Wilder. The movie has a different rythym than most comedies out there lately, so maybe that explains why these idiot critics couldn't wrap their heads around it. Historically critics have always resisted silly comedy. This is silly at it's most silly. It's a thumb up the nose, which also must turn critics off...critics whose tastes have been trained to think own wilson and vince vaughn equal comedy....MAYBE that weirdo Steve Carell. Maybe.

Anyway, I think if you like our show, you'll be on the side of brothers solomon. I'm not saying you're going to walk away declaring it the best movie you've ever seen. But you will laugh and you will laugh often.

thank you.

[Itslikeimsayin]

If there's no thread, it's because it was lost in a board crash. I'm sure there was a thread when the movie was out. I sort of hated the movie when I first saw it, but now I find myself enjoying parts when I see it on TV.

[priceyeah]

ILIS -- Of course, I forgot about that. I do think it works better if you pick it up in the middle, like I did. I suppose it irritated a lot of paying customers in the Multiplex.

Aaron -- Yes, that quote is dead on. I might have slighted Forte's peculiar contribution as an actor; the Wilder thing is perfect.

Thinking about it, I feel like "Solomon" was about two guys who are idiots and don't really know it and are at least TRYING to do the normal thing, in some sense. "Step Brothers" wasn't really like that, it was just about inexplicable dumbfuckery -- which has its place, but I liked "Solomon"'s approach better.

[Wittels]

File me under "loves it" and also "W" for Wittels! hahahah

[Ivan]

The dead bird and popcorn joke is wonderful.

[P-Dub]

Yeah, the diaper surprises are the best. I also loved their choice of movie rentals; Ulee's Gold, Finding Forrester....

[aenemaTron]

I really liked it. It was funny and sweet. LOVED the opening credits.

[Jouster]

LOVED the opening credits.

Why?

[Aaron1933]

Probably because of the Comic Sans font and they fact that they didn't key out the green.

[Itslikeimsayin]

The opening credits made me angry.

[MrDys]

Loved it. It took me a while to get into it, but I really liked the strange reality that was constructed. The dead bird and popcorn joke killed me so much that I had to pause the movie and pick myself up off the floor.

[Jason One]

It's definitely underappreciated. I'm amazed that such a harmless movie got such insanely bad reviews -- there's a big disconnect there that I don't understand.

Arnett and Forte are both great, the jokes are good. I think it shows Odenkirk improving as a director since Let's Go to Prison. And it's way better than Step Brothers.

[jcarlon]

Love it

[aenemaTron]

Why?

It was cute and silly.

[BillBrasky]

I like this movie a lot. It's a lot better than "Let's Go to Prison", and seems more typical of Bob's style of humor. Every time I watch a little bit of LGTP, I wonder what attracted Bob to such a bleak script full of such unlikeable characters (and what possessed Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant to write it).

I remember at the time saying that this movie was ultimately a failure because although the jokes were funny, it didn't have an involving enough story that kept you interested in the characters throughout the movie. I guess that's true; although Bob has improved as a director, he's not quite at the Judd Apatow level yet, where his movies really work as movies rather than just as silly comedies.

However, you're right, the characters in "Stepbrothers" are a lot more annoying than the characters in TBS, and that movie wasn't especially strong, story-wise, and it still did extremely well. I think audiences are just used to Will Ferrell acting like a jerk, and have come to expect that from him, whereas Will Arnett and Will Forte just aren't big enough names yet to carry a movie. There wasn't really ever a chance it was going to be a big box office success.

But as far as critics not liking it, so what? Bizarre, left-of-center comedies are always going to by definition not appeal to everyone. I'm sure "Cabin Boy" got its share of bad reviews too, and "Brain Candy"; a lot of the movies people on this site love. I try not to let bad reviews influence me too much; I know that for every movie that gets overpraised too much, there are underappreciated gems that don't get noticed as much as they should.

I love the skywriting banner scene, it always makes me smile.

[priceyeah]

That's all very astute, I agree with all of it.

The key difference between "Step Brothers" and "Solomon" was that the filmmakers had contempt for the characters in "Step Brothers," whereas in "Solomon" the protagonists were treated sympathetically, as sweet losers. To me that's the difference between "endearing" and "go away."

[Truth Movement]

My list of people who I find funnier than Will Forte is pretty short and TBS is just a damn funny film. I love Bill Hader's cameo.

I really can't wait for Macgruber.

[absopure]

I have actually had this in Netflix purgatory for a couple of months, started it up and thought "ok maybe I will revisit this later" midway through the opening credits. I love Will Forte though and given some distance from the situation suddenly the Comic Sans credits seem really funny instead of an evil omen. I don't know, I'm ready you guys!!

[mike]

Just watched it, loved it!

The kid sister from Growing Pains is in it!!