Will Ferrell (Semi-Pro) and John C. Reilly (Walk Hard) are comedy gold together. If you’ve seen Talladega Nights:The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, then you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, then you should probably quit reading them, go see it, then continue reading this review for their newest movie Step-Brothers. This movie was much funnier than I expected, and I really enjoyed it.

Brennan (Ferrell) and Dale (Reilly) are two 40 year old men still living with their parents. When their parents meet at a conference the two fall in love and decide to get married, making their sons step-brothers. Although they have similar lifestyle and are forced to share a room, the boys hate each other. When they begin working together against Brennan’s younger, more successful brother they finally realize they have much in common and quickly become best friends. As their friendship progresses, their parents marriage grows apart leading to the ultimate decision of divorce. But what will happen to Brennan and Dale? Well, they must go out into the big world on their own and see if they can finally grow up and become men.

Whether these two are best friends or enemies they are hilarious to watch. Some people may think Ferrell is just up to his old schtick, which I can see what they mean, but I love it. He was in his element with this movie, and it was much better than some of his other roles as of late. It’s hard to not watch Reilly in a movie and not think afterwards that he has another great performance in his pocket – even if the movie surrounding him is terrible, luckily that’s not the case in this instance.

Not only are Ferrell and Reilly reteamed for Step-Brothers, but so are Ferrell and director/writer Adam McKay (Anchorman). They’re reteamed before (on FunnyorDie.com – you may have heard of the Pearl skits, if not go watch them now!) but not on the big screen. McKay has a great way of shooting comedic scenes and shows them with wonderful timing.

Step-Brothers is a great way to pass the night. It’s a little more graphic for a comedy and is rated R for a reason, but that didn’t bother me. I’d give the movie a B+ and can’t wait to buy it on DVD.

Horton (Jim Carey) is an elephant with a enormous imagination who normally spends his days teaching the young animals of the jungle. However, one day he overhears a voice coming from a speck of dust floating through the air. He realizes that there must be people living on the speck and discovers the voice is the Mayor of Whoville (Steve Carell). Unfortunately nobody else in the jungle can hear the voice as they don’t have Horton’s huge ears and he soon finds he has to do everything he can to stop Whoville from being destroyed.

Horton Hears a Who! is a children’s story by Dr Suess which I have to admit to having never read. These books completely past me by as a child and I suspect I was subjected to less imaginative fodder instead. Which is a shame as I’m as much of a fan of rhyming verse as the next person. Still, I did recently get dragged along to do some shopping for a baby shower and had a chance to flick through the pages of Horton hears a Who!. It certainly seemed to me that the film stays pretty faithful to the story.

I think what I found most refreshing about this movie is that it took me a while to figure out which characters Jim Carey and Steve Carell were playing. It seriously could have been the other way around and I really like that. It felt like they were actually making an effort to play the characters as opposed to just being a famous voice in an animated cartoon. I find with some of the other animated stories, with a whole host of famous voices, it tends to distract a little bit from the actual story. Here I think the story was first and foremost in the minds of everyone involved.

I suppose it’s easy to be extremely casual about the animation because we’ve seen this kind of quality before but I’m always blown away by the amount of effort it must take. As you’d expect it’s all flawlessly done and is a visually stunning piece of animation. Certainly the feel of the characters seemed to fit perfectly with how they were portrayed in the book. That could have been a big pitfall for any die hard Dr Suess fans out there but I’d be surprised if they didn’t like this movie.

I liked the story. I think it was genuinely funny as well imaginative. Perfect for kids and there’s probably enough there to keep adults entertained as well. It also didn’t try to be a super cool movie with popular references thrown in. The original Dr Suess story was the focus and it served the film superbly well.

There’s definitely a lot to enjoy. A simple story that’s perfect for a family movie session. I can’t think of a more imaginative way to introduce the idea of parallel universes into the mind’s of kids!

Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) is just back on active duty with the Secret Service on the U.S. President’s close protection detail. Understandably jumpy from being shot six months earlier, the last place Barnes wants to be is in the middle of a terrorist plot on the President’s life. Through the eyes of several people involved in the incident Vantage Point tries to uncover the truth of the terrorist plot.

Although the whole idea of this movie is to focus on each main character and show the terrorists’ attack from different viewpoints, it doesn’t hide the fact that the story just isn’t that exciting. If this had been shot in a conventional sequential manner it would have been a standard run-of-the-mill thriller. Having the story stop and spin back to the beginning to be told again through someone else’s eyes is a nice idea, but it doesn’t help to build any suspense or thrills. And, to be honest by the third or fourth time of spinning back to the beginning I was getting fed up of watching the same incident again. There were perhaps a couple of genuine moments of revelation from the switch in viewpoint, but not enough to warrant the premise.

Still, there’s nothing really offensive about this movie. The acting is okay without being outstanding. Quaid and Whitaker are really just going through the motions. Half the problem is that nobody really gets the focus long enough to become indelible on the film. You get the usual explosions, car chases and people being shot without having to invest anything into the movie. It’s a shame because there is a lot of clever thinking behind the terrorist plot and it doesn’t warrant the kind of anti-climatic ending that’s served up.

I wonder how much thought that went into the shooting of the different viewpoints took away from making the story one that’s worth watching. It really needed to back up the plot with a lot more substance  and it’s not as it wasn’t there to be had. The shock aspects of the terrorism could have been played out more and there’s a whole betrayal sub-plot that’s hardly given a second thought.  It’s a shame because there’s a great cast wasted on this film.

Vantage Point is certainly watchable but if you’re like me most of it will just wash over you. There was a point where I thought it might become an entertaining stand off as the terrorists and Secret Service try to out think each other but the promise was never realized. By the time the film stops spinning around from every viewpoint it has become an instantly forgettable movie. A solid film but don’t expect too much.