I love a good road trip comedy, but like most films they are hit and miss. The latest, Half Brothers brings a bilingual aspect to the story and stars Luis Gerardo Méndez, Connor Del Rio, Juan Pablo Espinosa, and Bianca Marroquin, but does it manage to be a trip worth taking or should they have stayed strangers?

 

Half Brothers follows Renato, a successful Mexican aviation executive who is shocked to discover he has an American half-brother he never knew about, the free-spirited Asher. The two very different half-brothers are forced on a road journey together masterminded by their ailing father, tracing the path their father took as an immigrant from Mexico to the US.

 

I wasn’t fully sold on this film from the trailers, but I have to say that it ended up being a pleasant surprise. The film isn’t anything we haven’t seen before in films like Due Date, but the family twist and reasoning behind the trip gives it a fresh take. There is the usual dysfunctional relationship between the two leads in Mendez and Del Rio which makes up for all the heart, laughs and frustration. They have great chemistry and you fully buy into their relationship as it develops and devolves throughout.

 

I was glad that they went all in with some of the zany moments to keep the laughs coming without ever veering to far from the emotional aspect of the story that makes these characters interesting. Sure there is a lot of predictability here to where it is heading and how some things play out, but the journey is so fun and heartfelt that you don’t really mind.

 

Despite it being familiar territory Half Brothers still brings everything you want in a buddy comedy complete with family issues and a heartfelt story that is sure to entertain.

Grab your goat and hit the road when Half Brothers hits theaters on December 4th from Focus Features.