5 Best Movies Like Little Brother

The "odd couple" dynamic is a tried-and-true formula for any comedy. Just get two characters with differing personalities, and see how much they can annoy one another. "Little Brother" on Netflix takes this formula and pairs the always chaotic Eric André with the stone-faced John Cena to see how far one man can be pushed.

Rudd Landy (Cena) has a seemingly perfect life with a great realty job, a loving family, and a reality TV gig on the horizon. But everything gets upended when Marcus (André) enters his life. Marcus is Ruddy's former little brother from the Big Brothers mentorship program years prior, but now, he's re-entered his life to throw everything into turmoil. But if Rudd opens up his stiff personality a little bit, he may just realize Marcus is exactly what he needs to make his life even better.

Andre and Cena have been in some great comedies in the past, and they work even better together. And luckily for you, there are plenty of other movies like "Little Brother" that keep the laughs coming.

Eric Andre is probably best known for his antics on "The Eric André Show," a twisted take on a late night talk show. The celebrity reactions to Andre's one-liners and gags were real, and the pranks on "The Eric André Show" were all too real as well. So it was only natural for André to take that sensibility into a feature-length format to see how much he could get away with.

Enter: 2021's "Bad Trip." It's available to watch on Netflix, so if you saw "Little Brother" on that platform, you can check out "Bad Trip," too. There is a narrative as Chris (André) and Bud (Lil Rel Howery) go on a road trip from Florida to New York so that Chris can declare his love for his long-time crush Maria (Michaela Conlin). It's a bare-bones plot, but it's done in service so that André and Howery can prank real people along their journey, like when the duo stop at a bar and Chris fake-vomits uncontrollably everywhere. 

Looper interviewed André for "Bad Trip," and he revealed the true purpose of the film was to have a more kind-hearted prank movie. The problem with a lot of prank shows and films is that the pranks tend to be mean-spirited. But André and Howery always wind up being the butts of their own jokes, allowing everyone else to watch the spectacle or try to lend a helping hand. Watching André make an absolute fool himself is seeing the comedian in his natural environment. 

John Cena plays the straight man who's far too uptight in "Little Brother," but if you want to see the wrestler-turned-actor cut loose, then "Ricky Stanicky" is the way to go. It's a comedy that was a long time in the making, as star Andrew Santino once had to beg to star in it. 

Fresh off an Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture for "Green Book," director Peter Farrelly went back to his goofy comedy roots. "Ricky Stanicky" is far more in the vein of "Dumb and Dumber" than "Green Book," as it sees a group of pals make up a fake friend named Ricky Stanicky to blame anytime they wound up in trouble. As adults, they get called out on their deception and hire an actor, Rodney (Cena), to pretend to be Ricky. 

Looper's review of "Ricky Stanicky" offered both pros and cons, but the clear standout of the film is Cena. Even when the premise or the rest of the comedy falls flat, you can count on Cena to land a joke or offer some unexpected pathos. Both James Franco and Jim Carrey were attached to star in the titular role at various points, which would've been interesting to see in their own rights. But with "Ricky Stanicky," Cena proves he's easily one of the best wrestlers to move into acting. 

The 2000s were a golden era for raunchy R-rated comedies, and one of the last truly great ones to make it out is 2008's "Role Models." Like "Little Brother," it utilizes the Big Brother program for laughs, only this time, the main characters are far more persnickety than John Cena's Rudd Landy. 

The main duo consists of Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott) who get into legal trouble after knocking down a statue in their truck. However, the judge allows them to stay out of jail upon doing enough hours working as Big Brothers to their respective "littles," and for the jaded Danny, that means getting paired with the exceptionally nerdy Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). 

There's ample comedy to mine from the awkward chemistry between Danny and Augie. Wheeler and his little, Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson), are about on the same level mentally. Watching a child constantly swear is always going to be a fun time. But the supporting cast is absolutely stacked, as the likes of Ken Jeong, Jane Lynch, Ken Marino, Keegan-Michael Key, and Joe Lo Truglio, among many others, swing by for quick appearances that help bolster this comedy even further. 

A great, relatively modern example of the odd couple dynamic working so well is "Tommy Boy." The late, great Chris Farley plays Tommy, an emotionally immature young man who wants to prove that he can follow in his father's footsteps in running his auto parts company. To save the business, he embarks on a trek across the country with the far more uptight Richard (David Spade) to make enough money to save the business and keep it within the family. 

Farley and Spade were a fantastic comedic duo, from "Saturday Night Live" to "Black Sheep." Farley was a master of physical comedy and was almost graceful in the way he'd carry out pratfalls. While he could yell and shout, there was often a childlike innocence to his characters. This contrasted exceptionally well with Spade's churlish, sardonic attitude. Spade wasn't a physical comedian; instead, he was more known for his one-liners. Putting the two together for "Tommy Boy" was a no brainer.

There's plenty of crude humor in "Tommy Boy," but like "Little Brother," there's genuine heart at its core. In both films, you have two guys who can get on each others' nerves, but they reach a mutual understanding by the end. Farley's career may have been cut tragically short, but it's easy to see why "Tommy Boy" is easily Farley's best movie. 

Lil Rel Howery already appeared once on this list with one of the stars of "Little Brother," so it's only appropriate he pop up again with the other big name. Just as he was a foil to Eric André's insanity in "Bad Trip," he plays against the wild, chaotic energy of John Cena in 2021's "Vacation Friends." 

This isn't just an odd couple movie but a film with some very odd couples. Straight-laced Marcus (Howery) and Emily (Yvonne Orji) get engaged while on vacation and wind up making friends with their polar opposites, namely Ron (Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner). But the madness doesn't end with the vacation, as Ron and Kyla worm their way back into the other couple's lives during their wedding ceremony, where a horrible secret might get revealed. 

Movies like "Little Brother" and "Vacation Friends" tend to follow the same formula. You have characters who apparently have their lives together, and someone enters their life who upends everything and forces them out of their shell. The uptight friend may reject the wild newcomer, but then they realize there's something to learn with them after all. It's a message we could all be reminded of once in a while that it's okay to cut loose now and then. If you can laugh in the process, that's all the better.