LITTLE BROTHER Review

As of this writing, it's July 1st. Coming into today, I had seen 56 movies released in 2026. Not quite the pace I was on last year, but not a bad one by any stretch. With most of the days of the year in the backend, I'm likely easily going to crush 100 new releases in the calendar year. And that's got me excited.

So how has 2026 been so far on the cinematic front? Pretty good! After having just one 4.5 out of 5 movie and no 5 out of 5 offerings in 2025, I've already got one perfect score and two movies just shy of it. And that's with The Odyssey, Evil Dead Burn, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day all coming out this month! And an Avengers movie later this year? Who knows what my rankings will look like after those flicks are released? This could be one of the better years this decade!

Regardless, it's been a solid year with a lot of calendar left. I'm excited to see where we go from here.

That said, where there is good, there is also bad. I also already have a 0.5 star rating "awarded" to a film that came out this year. When you watch 56 new release movies in 6 months, you can't expect them all to be winners. You hope! You try to pick the best looking ones! But it doesn't always go your way.

Like the night on the first of a new month when your wife tells you about the new Netflix movie she wants to watch with you...

Little Brother is the streaming giant's newest offering. It stars the comedic pairing of Eric Andre and John Cena. The latter of which plays an up-and-coming real estate salesman who is striving to make it as a star on an HGTV style reality television program. He has an older brother (played by Christopher Meloni) whose shadow he has long felt buried by, and the producers of the show want to use that dynamic as his character on the show. Cena's character has misgivings about this, but he's ready for his day in the spotlight.

Eric Andre plays a man in a mental health hospital who, long ago, was the protege to Cena's character in the Big Brothers and Little Brothers program. Whereas those days have been long forgotten by Cena, they meant everything to Andre's character.

So when Andre escapes his institutionalization, he immediately sets out to find his "Big Brother". And this intrusion into his life could not come at a worse time for Cena as his star is starting to rise...

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ Eric Andre really commits to his bit here. He is so confident being a goof and a loser. He seems really extremely comfortable playing what looks to have been an uncomfortable role. He is apparently more than willing to take his lumps and disgusting pratfalls.

+ I remain a huge fan of John Cena the actor, and it’s great seeing him play the straight man rather than the lead goofball. Cena has really established a burgeoning career of playing the silly character; he is more than willing to be the butt of the joke and make the audience laugh. Here, he is tasked with being the character to whom things happen rather than the one making them happen.

I'm not saying that Little Brother is direly broadening the Unseen Seventeen's roles or horizons, but it does show that he continues to be willing to try anything and see if he excels at it.

- Little Brother is not funny at all. It’s awkward and try-hard and unpleasant and gross. But it’s not funny. I watched the entire thing without really even cracking a smile. And that's not really what you want from your straight comedy. You expect there to be at least a joke here or there that lands. Unfortunately, that's not the case in Little Brother.

- The plot is screenwriting 101, and the film follows every single beat you expect it to have. There are no surprises here. I would say that you can see it all coming during the first act, but hell... you know everything that's going to happen as soon as you read the plot synopsis. If your movie isn't going to be funny, it should at least be shocking with where it goes.

OVERALL

Little Brother was, frankly, terrible. It's the kind of comedy that I grew out of decades ago, and that's implying I might ever have liked it. Is it the WORST thing I've seen in this year? Well, it's definitely in the running, and I expect it to place high in the Worst Of 2026 list at the end of the year. It's not humorous, it's incredibly basic, and even the Ups aren't that strong on this one, as John Cena earns his just by being someone I enjoy. I would do my best to stay away from this effort if you have not seen it yet.

🍿 SCORE = 17 / 100