LITTLE BROTHER - - John Cena, the King of Charity

Review by Adam Donato

John Cena has transferred his wrestling career into a successful movie career. The last few years he has been reduced to streaming comedies. Little Brother is the latest entry in that subgenre for Cena. He plays a hustling real estate agent who is trying to keep with his more successful biological brother, but when Cena’s forgotten little brother that he volunteered to hang out with for charity comes back into his life, everything gets thrown for a loop. His forgotten little brother is played by comedic icon, Eric Andre. From the director of Ingrid Goes West comes a brand new outrageous R rated comedy. Can this outing for Cena and company make an impression on streaming?

The plot of Little Brother is very formulaic for this kind of comedy. A relatable good guy is trying to succeed in his normal life until he’s tied down at the hip by some wacky character. The formula suffices here, but rather than the emotional pull coming from the relationship between our two leads, the more impactful aspect is how important big brother relationships are. Cena is widely known for his great charity work, so making a movie about how powerful volunteering your time to under privileged youth can truly be. Obviously, this movie exaggerates it for comedic effect, but the overall theme rings true. Nothing to inspire waterworks from audiences, but certainly enough to make this a feel good movie. 

The duo of Cena and Andre is a curious one. Andre slips right into the wild card role as most of his career is known for his obnoxious brand of humor. Cena is serviceable as a straight man, but he has such a distinct look and personality that would suit the wild card role better like he did in Ricky Stanicky. It’s a very physical comedic performance for both of our leads. The two have fine chemistry together, but their best moments happen when either one of them is solo. Their relationship resolution is nothing that will pull on heart strings, but as if they were really going for that. They’re both just focused on being as funny as can be and about half the time, they are. 

Little Brother plugs in Cena and Andre to a standard comedic format and receives moderate return. Usually, it’s typical for streaming reviews to lament the lack of a theatrical release, but Little Brother has an appropriate home on Netflix. Good enough to be a salvageable late night throw on movie, but nothing to go out of your way for. Cena’s next projects include Coyote vs. ACME, which was supposed to be a tax write off, and Matchbox the Movie, which is for Apple TV+. Meanwhile, you can catch Andre in the upcoming Street Fighter movie. So Little Brother is right in line with what both of them got going on these days. 

Little Brother is on Netflix. 

Rating: 3/5