The Brothers Solomon

The tone of this sorry excuse for a comedy is set within the first minute as John Solomon (Arnett) and his brother Dean (Forte) fill out an online application for a dating service. Half a dozen punchlines; zero titters.

Having been raised at the Poles, the boys could be forgiven for being a little naïve when it comes to impressing the ladies. What can’t be forgiven is that these witless, charmless, grinning morons see women as nothing more than sperm receptacles.

So when their father (Lee Majors) falls into a coma, it is with some discomfort that we must witness their pathetic quest to continue the family line. (For once, the former Bionic Man must be delighted that they can’t rebuild him.)

With their dates ending in disaster – even death – and after blowing their chance to adopt, John and Dean decide to go the surrogate route.

Their ad is answered by cash-strapped Janine (Forte’s SNL colleague Kristen Wiig, selflessly taking one for the team), whose sometime boyfriend James (Chi McBride) is black, burly, and not very happy. Cue awkward race jokes.

As writer, Forte must be held responsible for the pitifully shallow cupful of ideas slopped around during Janine’s ensuing pregnancy.

Painful and painfully obvious, they include the requisite trip to the sperm bank, John’s slimy hounding of a pretty neighbour (The Heartbreak Kid’s Malin Akerman), and an incident involving a playground, the cops and the sex offenders’ register.

The appointment of a director with a talent bypass doesn’t help the cause. Odenkirk even manages to blow the half-decent, message-on-a-plane ending by stretching it to breaking point.

Compounding the folly in front of the camera, Forte and Arnett form the least appealing comic duo since Bernard Manning took his last look in the mirror.

To say that Odenkirk, Forte and Arnett have raised the bastard offspring of Dumb and Dumber and Knocked Up would be giving them too much credit.

The only amusement here comes from counting the imaginary tumbleweeds that so frequently roll across the screen.

Elliott Noble