I fully recognize that comic performer Eric André has a large fanbase, and that means about as much to me as knowing that, at any given moment, André might take off all of his clothes. In fact, I’m fairly certain that I’ve never seen a movie with him in a starring role in which he didn’t get fully naked. There is such a thing as coming off desperate in the name of comedy, and Eric André strikes me as exactly that in every circumstance; I’ve never found him funny.
But as I said, he has a massive following, so thye industry keeps hiring him in (sort of) high-profile films with better performers and killing the laughs. The latest example of this is Little Brother, in which André plays Marcus, who’s recently “escaped” from a mental hospital to go visit Rudd (John Cena), a real estate agent who was his Big Brother in a Big Brother-Little Brother program when they were kids. Marcus latched onto the idea that Rudd is the only family that really cares about him, while Rudd basically forget Marcus existed.
We see flashbacks to their childhood, and it quickly becomes apparent to everyone except Marcus that Rudd only signed up to be a Big Brother to pad his list of extracurricular activities for college applications. Rudd already had a real brother named Josh (played as an adult by Christopher Meloni), and Rudd has spent his entire life living in the hugely successful Josh’s shadow. Rudd is a realtor on the brink of becoming famous after he gets cast in a realty show, whose producers (Ego Nwodim and Caleb Hearon) are looking for an interesting angle to make Rudd more appealing to their audience. When Marcus shows up unannounced, the producers think he’s the best shot at likability that Rudd has, so Rudd begrudgingly lets Marcus stay with him. Chaos ensues, mostly involving Marcus inserting himself into Rudd’s life and doing a better job relating to his family, including wife Deirdre (Michelle Monaghan), and friends than he does.
Directed by Matt Spicer (who helmed Ingrid Goes West, a much better film about an unwanted guest), Little Brother is all things that a comedy should not be—predictable, grating, forced, and unfunny in ways that feel deliberate. Most of the attempts at humor come when Rudd attempts to figure out what someone else wants from him, either in his marriage or in the eyes of the show’s producers, who always seem on the verge of firing him. Whatever he does goes horribly wrong, and somehow that makes Marcus look more sane. Rudd has two teen sons who are about the biggest shits in the film with so many to choose from. And except for Rudd’s hapless assistant (Sherry Cola), everyone in this film is an asshole and I was tired of spending time with them after about 10 minutes.
I realize not every film starring John Cena is a winner, but the guy knows how to be funny, so to see him drained of the opportunity to cut loose and make us laugh by making him a humorless straight man, it’s painful and unnecessary, much like this movie.
The film is now streaming on Netflix.
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