The increasing dominance of streaming content over theatrical releases continues Brothersa legendary entertainment production that distributor Amazon MGM Studios released in a handful of theaters for a week without critics’ screenings ahead of its October 17 debut on Prime. That strategy will likely prove fortuitous for a mildly entertaining feature film that doesn’t have enough power to compete at the early awards season box office, meaning the film will find a less dedicated audience in the streaming verse.

Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage play mismatched siblings with heavy jaws (enhanced in Dinklage’s case by a handlebar moustache) in Max Barbakow’s second feature, exploring the subtler comic shades of Palm Springs for ham-fisted humor, to disappointingly diminishing effect.

A brief set-up introduces career criminal Jady Munger (Dinklage), who manages to shave off a significant portion of his prison sentence for burglary and assault after making a secret deal with corrupt Judge Farful (M. Emmet Walsh).

Under the watchful eye of Farful’s son James (Brendan Fraser), Jady agrees to help recover and transfer a cache of stolen emeralds worth millions, stolen years earlier by his mother, Cath Munger (Glenn Close). left behind when she went on the run to avoid arrest. To complete his plan, Jady tries to recruit his twin brother Moke (Brolin), who immediately tries to leave after working with Jady on multiple robberies that also almost landed him in prison.

After the initial adjustment to Dinklage and Brolin playing twins, the tendency is to settle for the familiar twists of an entertaining heist comedy. But those expectations are soon undermined by a ridiculously complicated family drama.

When Jady shows up uninvited to the baby shower for Moke’s pregnant wife Abby (Taylour Paige), Moke’s carefully compartmentalized life threatens to fall apart – unless he can calm Jady down by agreeing to use his safecracking skills to get the emeralds. As the brothers embark on a road trip to get the job done, with Officer Farful hot on their trail, Moke little suspects the world of pain Jady has in store for him in a misguided attempt at familial bonding.

Jady’s alternating voiceover attempts to piece together decades of missed opportunities and hard feelings between the brothers, while Dinklage’s hangdog expressions and cajoling tone help weaponize Jady’s campaign of deliberate emotional manipulation.

However, any attempt at reconciliation is sidelined when Moke discovers that Jady has been in contact with Cath for some time without telling him. Her sudden appearance after thirty years sends him into an emotional freefall before both his mother and brother can bring him back in to focus on the logistics of the heist, which turns out to be far more unorthodox than they expected.

If their appearance never before suggested a family resemblance, Brothers will now inevitably connect Brolin and Dinklage, who find fertile ground for their less-appreciated comedic talents in the slippery sibling dynamic between the estranged brothers. Close proves to be an inspired casting as the conniving and unrepentant Cath, who shows little sign of motherly concern for her sons in a quest to get her hands on the emeralds.

While the premise is reminiscent of silly brotherly comedies like Adam McKay’s Stepbrothers or Ivan Reitman’s Twins, Brothers lacks the idiosyncrasy of the filmmakers’ previous work. It eschews the endearing humor that Barbakow memorably mined in his own Groundhog Day riff Palm Springs or the madness of screenwriter Macon Blair The poisonous avenger.

However, the film delivers tasteful characters and fast-paced dialogue for both the supporting cast and stars, giving Fraser a cheerfully gonzo role as the enraged Farful and sending Walsh off with a handful of choice lines in one of the veteran films. final roles of character actor. Even Marisa Tomei’s cameo lands as Jady’s prison correspondence, long-distance love interest and orangutan owner Samuel, who develops a perverse affinity for Moke in one of the film’s few laugh scenes.

Brothers is dynamically photographed by Quyen Tran and energetically scored by Rupert Gregson-Williams (backed by a selection of ’70s pop hits). But for a film that aspires to old-fashioned comedy, it packs far too much firepower into a slim plot and even sketchier character development. Whether a streaming audience will even notice the miscalibration is likely irrelevant, as long as they remember the mismatched brothers.