Amazon Prime has recently shown a penchant for the kind of zany action comedies that studios aren’t flooding theaters with like they used to. With films from Peter Farrelly, Paul Feig and others, the genre is alive and well represented in Culver City Palm Springs Second feature film by director Max Barbakow brothers not only fits the bill exactly, but is also an extremely entertaining example of how it can be done.

What also makes the whole thing so good is an exceptionally well-chosen cast of star actors who act against type. What else can I say except that Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage play fraternal twins and Glenn Close is their conniving crook mother! Add in an X-rated love scene with a CGI orangutan and you have a recipe for madness brothers delivers in the best slapstick style.

As we learn in flashbacks, fraternal twins Jady (Dinklage) and younger brother Moke (Brolin) were wild when they were young and got into trouble for robberies and other mischief. Life is behind him, he marries Abby (Taylour Paige) and becomes family man. When Jady is released from prison, he returns to his brother’s life with a tempting proposal for one final job: recovering $4 million worth of jewelry buried by their equally problematic mother, Cath Munger (Close). who, as a young woman, had committed the robbery 30 years earlier and virtually disappeared from Jady and Moke’s lives for three decades. Now she comes back on the scene, promising everyone the same riches if she leads the boys to this buried treasure, and what follows is a crazy road trip with the unhinged Jady and a very reserved but intense Moke, the kind which perhaps, like so many other films of its kind, inspired wake up Midnight run where a mismatched couple finds all sorts of problems sticking together. In its own twisted way, this is a film about family. I’m not kidding you.

On their trail is a bumbling but determined villain, Farful, a great role played to the fullest by Brendan Fraser as he makes a deal to free Jady from prison in return for a piece of the action, but actually intends to to collect from him is entirely himself. This was made possible by his corrupt judge father (M. Emmet Walsh, in his last role). This film is Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy world on steroids. It doesn’t shy away from going completely crazy in places, especially during a booty call requested by Jady, who visits a pen pal from his prison time, the animal-loving Bethesda (Marisa Tomei). While they live out their unique style of lovemaking in the bedroom, Moke is left alone on the couch in the living room when he is approached by an orangutan like no other screen monkey. It turns out that Samuel (played in motion capture by Devyn Dalton, who did similar CGI work in) Planet of the Apes Movies) is pretty horny and relies on a freaky Moke to satisfy him. This scene is LOL hilarious, a crazy comic distraction in a movie that just throws everything against the wall.

With big set pieces, including a wild golf cart chase, and lots of explosions in a small scene near the end, Barbakow delivers on the promise of his acclaimed film Palm Springs, He doesn’t suffer a sophomore curse here, but instead proves adept at delivering an action comedy (thankfully in just under 90 minutes) without sacrificing the film’s human characters, who somehow manage to pull it off, despite all the shenanigans they bring endure remaining three-dimensional. The screenplay is by Macon Blain with story by Etan Cohen.

It’s nice to see Brolin and Dinklage trying out different characters here and putting it all on the line. Both prove to be masters of comedy without humor complete exaggerated. For Close, an eight-time Oscar nominee, she seems to have a lot of fun playing the untrustworthy, duplicitous matriarch who will never win Mother of the Year. Fraser, long known for his comedic chops before winning a Best Actor Oscar in a more serious vein, delivers once again in this regard, and it looks like he’s not afraid to try anything either. Paige anchors her scenes well as the only obviously sane character in this circus.

Producers of the Legendary Pictures production are Brolin, Dinklage, Andrew Lazar and David Ginsberg.

Title: brothers
Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios
Release date: Now available on Amazon Prime
Director: Max Barbakow
Screenwriter: Macon Blain (story by Etan Cohen)
Casting: Josh Brolin, Peter Dinklage, Taylour Paige, M. Emmet Walsh, Jennifer Landon, Brendan Fraser, Marisa Tomei, Devyn Dalton, Glenn Close
Evaluation: R
Duration: 1 hour 29 minutes