After receiving decidedly lukewarm-at-best receptions to Semi-Pro and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, both Will Ferrell (Stranger Than Fiction, Blades of Glory) and John C. Reilly (Magnolia, Chicago) were in need of a chance to redeem themselves with their core comedy audiences. And in Step Brothers, they found it.

Step Brothers is the story of Brennan Huff (Ferrell) and Dale Doback (Reilly), two terminally unemployed 40-year-olds who each live with and spend their time sponging off of their single parents. But when Brennan's mom, Nancy (Mary Steenburgen), and Dale's dad, Robert (Richard Jenkins) meet and marry, it looks like Brennan and Dale's extra-long free ride is about to come to an end.

Largely conceived of by Ferrell, Reilly and writer/director Adam McKay (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy) as a chance to work together again after all the fun they had on Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Brothers is a return to the glory of classic Will Ferrell comedies like Old School - and then some. As it was co-written by Ferrell and McKay, Step Brothers is without question all about the laughs - and they are many. In fact, I dare say Step Brothers might go a step further than Ferrell's other movies because this one (insert applause here) is R-rated. And without the constraints of a PG-13, these boys blossom - using my favorite medium of blue humor to its absolute fullest. Swears and dirty names abound in Step Brothers to great effect, and -- true to producer Judd Apatow's trademark - there is some very creative use of male nudity that had me screaming in my seat.

Not that I'm saying Step Brothers is cinematic perfection. Even the filmmakers will admit that the plot is thin at best, but they will also tell you - and I think rightly so - that plot is secondary to a movie like this, whose main function is just to make you laugh at any cost. And for the most part they do that quite well, although about two-thirds of the way through the laughs start to slow a bit.

Ferrell's and Reilly's characters are even more ridiculous than usual, going well beyond hyperbole and essentially asking us to swallow that two such pseudo-retarded adult children could ever actually exist in an otherwise normal world. But if you can suspend your disbelief and go along for the ride, it is certainly a fun one. Costars Adam Scott (Knocked Up, Tell Me You Love Me) and Kathryn Hahn (The Last Mimzy, The Holiday) are absolutely hilarious as Brennan's impossibly weenie-esque brother and his impossibly-repressed, half-crazed wife.

In short: I thought the movie was hysterical, and I definitely think it is worth a trip to the theater. Ferrell, Reilly: consider yourself redeemed.

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