Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage in Sibling Crime Caper.

The increasing dominance of streaming content over theatrical releases continues brothersa legendary entertainment The production, which distributor Amazon MGM Studios released to a handful of theaters for a week without critical screenings before its October 17 debut on Prime. This strategy may prove to be a godsend for a moderately amusing feature film that lacks the heft to compete at the box office as awards season begins, leaving the film to find a less engaged audience in the streaming-verse.

Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage play unlikely, strong-jawed siblings (in Dinklage’s case enhanced by a handlebar mustache) in Max Barbakow’s second feature, in which he explores the subtler comic shades of Palm Springs for clumsy humor, with a disappointingly diluting effect.

A brief setup introduces career criminal Jady Munger (Dinklage), who manages to have a significant portion of his sentence for burglary and assault thrown out after making a secret deal with corrupt judge Farful (M. Emmet Walsh).

Under the watchful eye of Farful’s correctional officer son James (Brendan Fraser), Jady agrees to help recover and hand over a stash of stolen emeralds worth millions that his mother Cath Munger (Glenn Close) had stolen years earlier left behind when she went on the run to avoid arrest. To accomplish his plan, Jady tries to recruit his twin brother Moke (Brolin), who wants to get started right away after teaming up with Jady in several robberies that also nearly landed him in prison.

After initially getting used to Dinklage and Brolin playing twins, you tend to settle for the familiar twists and turns of an entertaining heist comedy. But these expectations are quickly dashed by a ridiculously complicated family drama.

When Jady shows up uninvited at the baby shower for Moke’s pregnant wife Abby (Taylour Paige), Moke’s carefully compartmentalized life is in danger of falling apart – unless he can appease Jady by agreeing to use his safe-cracker skills to get to the emeralds. As the brothers embark on a road trip to pull off the job, with Officer Farful close behind, Moke has little idea that a world of hurt awaits Jady in his misguided attempt to build familial bonds.

Jady’s intermittent voice-over narration attempts to piece together decades of missed opportunities and hard feelings between the brothers, while Dinklage’s slanted facial expressions and cajoling tone help weaponize Jady’s campaign of deliberate emotional manipulation.

However, any attempt at reconciliation fails when Moke finds out that Jady has been in contact with Cath for some time without telling him. Her sudden appearance after 30 years sends him into an emotional free fall before his mother and brother can catch up with him to focus on the logistics of the heist, which turns out to be far more unorthodox than anyone expected.

If their appearance never before suggested a family resemblance, brothers will now inevitably pair Brolin and Dinklage, who find the awkward sibling dynamic between the estranged brothers fertile ground for their less-appreciated comedic talents. Close proves inspired in casting the role of the conniving and unrepentant Cath, who shows little sign of maternal concern for her sons as she searches for the emeralds.

While the premise suggests crazy fraternity comedies like Adam McKay’s stepbrothers or Ivan Reitmans Gemini, brothers lacks the quirkiness of the filmmakers’ previous work. It foregoes the winning humor that Barbakow memorably anchored in his work Groundhog Day reef Palm Springs or the madness of screenwriter Macon Blair The poisonous avenger.

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

brothers is dynamically shot 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 vintage comedy, it packs far too much cast firepower into a slim plot and even sketchier character development. Whether a streaming audience will even notice the miscalibration is probably irrelevant, as long as they remember the unlikely brothers.