"Our Idiot Brother" Blu-Ray Review - Written by Anthony T

Our Brother Idiot
Director: Jessie Peretz
Stars: Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel
Studio: The Weinstein Company / Anchor Bay Entertainment
MPAA Ratting: R
Running Time 90 Mins

Plot Synopsis:

"Our Idiot Brother" reteams director Jessie Peretz and star Paul Rudd, who worked together in 2002 Indie comedy "The Chateau. The film follows Ned, a trustworthy person that gets send to jail after selling drugs to a uniformed police officer. A couple of years later, he gets out of jail to find out that he's dumped by his girlfriend. Ned goes home to his mother and his three sisters. His sisters take turns in housing Ned. Things don’t exactly well for them, as his own messes that he gets himself into turns his sisters comfortable routine into a mess of problems in their own lives. But maybe Ned’s view on life will make them realize that Ned not that stupid.

Film Review:

For the first half of the first act, I thought that "Our Idiot Brother" was going to turn out to be one of those comedies that has no laughs. To my surprise, this film was very funny and has an entertaining story. Director Jesse Peretz does a very good job making some the film scenes funny through the way that he directs the film's comedic action. It was nice to see a comedy that rely mostly on dialogue instead of trying to gross you out with scenes filled gross out humor or scenes that would make you gag. Peretz could have asked for that before shooting, but he doesn't. The other thing that I liked about his direction he balances the dramatic and comedic elements. He does that very well, by not making the action become either dark enough that it drowns out the comedic aspects or too funny that you don't care about the main character’s relationship with his sisters.

One of the biggest reservations that I had going into this film was that Paul Rudd's character looked stupid enough that it would ruin the film. Thankfully, this was definitely not the case. Paul Rudd does a very good making the main character very likable and not annoying. He does that, by nailing both the funny and dramatic dialogue. Both of those aspects were needed, because the character is thrusted into some funny situations and troubling stuff with his family. It made the performance work and your entertained.

The screenplay written by David Schisgall and Evgenia Peretz does a very good job creating a comedic screenplay that has funny moments and dramatic elements that make the character's human. One of things that makes this story so well, the humor was funny. With films like this, the humor sometimes feels either dry or so gross out that you don't care about the characters. You care about the main character and the characters around him. The other thing that I liked about their screenplay, the fact that the film had a story. One of the things that comedy films have lacked is a story that goes on, during all the humorous moments. The screenwriters do a very good job having a centralized story that goes along with the humor. I like it, when films likes this have that. You need a story with the humor, because if you don't have that then the quality of the film suffers.

Blu-Ray Extras:

First on the disc is the audio commentary track from the film's director Jessie Peretz. This was one of those tracks that lost my interest. The reasons for that, there were too many dead spots and not enough information on the film's production. In a commentary track, you need the track to be informative and slow down. In this track, there wasn't enough information to keep you interested and too many spots where you hear only the film's dialogue to the point that the track felt like it was done in chapters. It would have been nice, if someone was also on this commentary track. It would've provided more balance to the track. After that, there is deleted and extended scenes and a standard behind the scenes featurette that gets brief interviews from the cast and crew of this film.

Final Summary:

"Our Idiot Brother" is a surprisingly funny film that has characters that keeps your interest and provides some good laughs. Sadly, the extras don't deliver on giving you the information on the production of the film.

Review Rating: Four Stars
DVD Extras: One and a Half Stars