Here's a scenario that might strike home with parents – because Will Ferrell's latest starring role in Step Brothers is as a feckless child who never really grows up, and certainly never leaves home.

And he's not the only one – John C. Reilly is also a 40-something slacker, saved from having to earn a living by the indulgence of an affluent parent.

But here comes the pitch – Ferrell's long-suffering mum (Mary Steenburgen) and Reilly's widower dad meet up, click and decide to get hitched.

And when they set up home together, the kids come as part of the deal.That means Ferrell and O'Reilly have to share a room, and at first behave like the spoilt brats they are.

Then they become fast friends, as you do – and they need each other's support as those cruel parents start to insist that they wise up, get a job and pay their own way.

It's got a Judd Apatow pedigree, which is usually a pretty good indicator of smiles in store, and even though the plot is potty the two leads are winning enough to keep you on board as the story carries on to the next set-up.

It could have been a lot sharper, and there's a fair amount of flab to be endured – it's the sort of film that looks as if everyone on the set was having a high old time, even if what ended up in the can doesn't quite communicate that comedy to the audience.

Director Adam McKay already has hit comedies of the scale of Anchorman and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby under his belt, so it's clear that he gets on well with Ferrell.

In fact, the two of them came up with the script, as they did on those previous projects.

But this time round, they could have made good use of a third party to pin down whether it was all quite as funny as they thought it was. The sad thing is that Step Brothers is a smart idea and has serious comic talent in the main roles, but it's not the fun feast that it should have been.

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