Little Brother

Directed by Matt Spicer, Little Brother follows an uptight real-estate agent (John Cena’s Rudd Landy) as his life is thrown into disarray after a figure from his past (Eric André’s Marcus Pinchel) suddenly arrives on the scene. It’s potentially hilarious subject matter that is, for the most part, employed to lackluster and forgettable effect by Spicer, as the filmmaker, armed with a screenplay by Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel, delivers a sluggish, uninvolving comedy that suffers from a recurring emphasis on eye-rollingly hackneyed developments – with this particularly true of the larger-than-life bent of some of the movie’s big comedic set-pieces (eg Marcus’ advice to Rudd on how to spice up his sex life). Cena’s predictably affable turn as the sympathetic protagonist ultimately stands in sharp contrast to André’s mostly grating work here, which only enhances the progressively tiresome atmosphere, and it’s clear, too, that the laughable emphasis on sentimental happenings within the third act ensures that the whole thing peters out to a distressing extent – with the final result a misguided piece of work that squanders a solid setup and agreeable lead performance.

** out of ****