Brothers
Brothers
Genres Action ,Comedy ,Crime
Directors Max Barbakow
Writer Etan Cohen
Country United States
Votes 13401
Rating 5.4
IMDBID tt9860566
Runtime 89
Languages English
Release 17 Oct, 2024
Cast Josh Brolin ,Peter Dinklage ,Glenn Close ,Brendan Fraser ,Taylour Paige
Twin brothers Moke (Josh Brolin) and Jady (Peter Dinklage) rob a warehouse, but only Jady gets caught and spends time in prison. While inside, he meets and strikes deals with connected Correctional Officer Farful (Brendan Fraser), whose crooked court-judge father (M. Emmet Walsh) gets Jady sprung from prison. Moke is working at a fast-food restaurant, but is fired because he didn't disclose his criminal past. His wife (Taylour Paige) is pregnant. Farful beats Jady up at his place, and threatens him into looking for some emeralds, but he doesn't find them. The brothers decide to go on a road trip for the emeralds. They visit Bethesda (an uncredited Marisa Tomei), a lady Jady met online. They meet her pet Orangutan there smoking a cigarette. They visit awhile but leave when the Orangutan sexually harasses Moke. They then stop at a motel, where they find their mom (Glenn Close). She talks about the heist many years ago when her partner swallowed some emeralds before dying in a car crash; she buried him and left the country. She now claims to be dying of brain cancer, with less than a year to live. They agree to one last heist to acquire the buried emeralds, now worth $4 million. Meanwhile, Farful gets to Bethesda's place and she tells him about the brothers before he gets chased away by the horny Orangutan. Mom and her sons get an excavator and go to the plot, which is now a private golf club, to dig up the body of her deceased crime partner who died with emeralds in his stomach. They get the emeralds but are spotted by golf players. There is an excavator/golf cart high-speed chase, but they manage to get away. They bury the body again in a different location, and Moke discovers that Jady impersonated "Labor and Employment Bureau" to get him fired from his job. The brothers fight, but Farful arrives with a gun and demands the emeralds. The mom runs away with the emeralds and they all chase her, but she gets into a car and drives away. Farful drives a car with the brothers in the back seat, but the handcuffed brothers get into another fight and a random kick knocks Farful unconscious. The mom sells the emeralds for cash, but the twins are able to locate her and demand their share of the loot. She runs to an abandoned mall with her kids in pursuit. Farful tracks his car by GPS, appears there with a gun and is able to secure the bag of cash. But when he opens the bag, he is sprayed in the face by pepper spray. As he fires more shots in agony, he hits a propane tank which explodes, the mall giant Christmas tree falls on him and he dies. Hearing the gunshots, the mall is surrounded with cops. The mom takes the gun, tells her sons to flee, and confesses that she's not actually dying. At Judge Farful's house, Moke gives the judge his share of cash in return for his brother's gun with incriminating fingerprints. Moke arrives late for Thanksgiving dinner with his wife and her family, and is joined by Jady, who says he has seen a lawyer and created a trust under Moke's daughter's name for $2 million. A year later, the brothers share a prison Thanksgiving meal with their mom in jail, where she gets to see her new granddaughter. The brothers go outside, and Jady opens his hand to reveal two emeralds, as it shows mom had secretly swallowed them just before being arrested. In the final narration, Jady reveals there was actually three emeralds, and he kept the extra one.
Brent Marchant
For whatever reason, genuinely funny comedies have become an increasingly rare cinematic commodity in recent years, so it’s a real treat when one comes along that satisfyingly tickles the funny bone. Such is the case with director Max Barbakow’s third feature effort, the wild and wacky tale of a dysfunctional crime family seeking to recover the hidden loot from a heist carried out by the family matriarch (Jen Landon) 30 years earlier. Leading the charge are twin brothers Jady (Peter Dinklage), a career criminal recently released from prison, and Moke (Josh Brolin), a gifted but long-reluctant thief who’s now trying to go straight. The goal is to find and retrieve a stash of emeralds stolen by their long-absent mother (Glenn Close), who originally pilfered the goods but has been on the run ever since – and who now shows up out of the blue to collect the gems for herself. The unlikely trio thus launches their quest to get the jewels, an odyssey finding them aggressively pursued by Officer Farful (Brendan Fraser), a crooked prison guard who arranged Jady’s early release through his father, a corrupt judge (M. Emmett Walsh in his penultimate screen performance), in exchange for a sizable cut of the stash. And, along the way, the parties to this wayward caper bungle themselves through an array of inventively inspired comic challenges that include Jady’s spacey new girlfriend (Marissa Tomei), Moke’s pregnant wife (Taylour Paige) and an unusually randy gorilla, among others. It’s also a cautionary tale on the notion of there being no honor among thieves, even when they’re members of one’s own family. While some of the film’s segments are obviously a little overwritten and overplayed (especially by Fraser), much of this romp plays fairly well, reminiscent of one of the Coen Brothers’ movies (though admittedly not quite as polished). If nothing else, though, it represents a huge step up from the filmmaker’s last outing, the positively horrendous “Palm Springs” (2020) (my worst film of that year), as well as a major improvement over many of Amazon Prime’s recent disappointing offerings, an accomplishment largely made possible by the performances of its stellar ensemble cast (particularly the three principals). “Brothers” isn’t epic filmmaking by any means, but it’s a good way to get some hearty laughs at home on a Friday night with a big bowl of popcorn, and that’s pretty satisfying all by itself.
posts by : Brent MarchantR96sk
'Brothers'... not the best. I wanted to enjoy it given I like those involved, but it really does fall flat and, despite a small run time, it doesn't flow well either. Peter Dinklage and Josh Brolin are OK together, chuck in Brendan Fraser & Glenn Close and it's a good cast... on paper. In reality, I didn't sense much from any of those on the screen and they have all produced far better. You also have Max Barbakow in the directing chair, the same can be said for him as it is safe to say this isn't the best follow-up for him after the excellent 'Palm Springs'.
posts by : R96sk