Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with our main man from Chicago-land, Capone. He's got the low down on John Singleton's revenge flick FOUR BROTHERS. The reviews thus far have been lukewarm, but I'm pulling for the flick to be a good, harsh violent extravaganza... fun at least, you know? Anyway, here's Capone!
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here. I realize that reviews for FOUR BROTHERS are flooding this site lately, but allow me to provide a more positive outlook for the film. Every so often, filmmakers forget how to be politically correct and simply make a revenge film that is relentless. In the new movie by John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, the Shaft remake), four men, adopted as boys by the same woman, seek out any- and everyone who had anything to do with her murder and eliminate their sorry souls from he face of the earth. And even the police are helpless to stop this vengeance juggernaut.
The dead woman in question is Evelyn Mercer (the gifted Fionnula Flanagan), and if Four Brothers has any faults it’s that we don’t get any time to get to know her the way the boys do. Yes, there are the prerequisite flashbacks that tap into specific life lessons Evelyn taught each of her boys. But Flanagan is such a presence, she deserves more screen time for us to actual care a little bit that she’s dead.
The title characters reunite in Detroit at Evelyn’s funeral, and despite her being a saintly figure in their lives, most of them are living fringe lives hiding from the law. Bobby (Mark Wahlberg) and Angel (Tyrese Gibson) emerge as the natural leaders of the four, who also include struggling musician Jack (Garrett Hedlund) and local community leader and family man Jeremiah (Outkast’s Andre Benjamin). With very little discussion and despite the warnings of local police detectives (Terrence Howard and Josh Charles), the Mercer boys become a four man killing squad roaming the streets looking for people with information on what appears to be a deliberate hit disguised as a convenience store heist.
Their language is rough and their behavior is pure brutality, but the interaction between the four is entertaining. I could have done without Bobby’s constant gay jokes aimed at Jack (who is apparently not gay), but the taunting seems right in line with their brotherly relationship. Wahlberg’s live-wire Bobby is still more proof that the guy is a for-real actor. He seems so comfortable in this rough environment that you wonder why he hasn’t starred in a film like this before. And Benjamin finally proves he’s got some potential as a thespian (something his mirco-role in Be Cool did not show us). Model-singer Gibson (working with Singleton for the third time after the vastly underrated Baby Boy and the worthless 2 Fast 2 Furious) is also quite good here with his slow-burn delivery and explosive bursts of violent behavior.
There isn’t much of a plot to Four Brothers, but there really doesn’t need to be. Like such works as Point Blank, there is but one objective: work your way through the peons to get to the man in charge and deliver upon him a glorious death. Along the way there are clues that maybe one of their own is a traitor and a few allies take a fall, but really what this film is about is brutal action and a high body count. On that modest level, Four Brothers is a success.
Capone
And then we have this other review that came in echoing Capone's opinion!
Hey Harry and the Cool-News-Bears,
I had the pleasure today of catching a sneak preview of "Four Brothers" today in Omaha, NE. I went in thinking the movie would be somewhere between "kinda sucked" or at least "pretty good". Boy, was I pleasantly surprised. This is actually a pretty entertaining movie. The preview sets up the whole movie (Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese, Andre 3000, and Garrett Hedlund are four foster brothers whose mom is murdered and they come back home to figure out Who and Why). The four main actors are very entertaining and have great chemistry. This movie actually has a lot more humor in it than you'd expect. The crowd really seemed to get into it as they laughed or cheered about every 5-10 minutes. i went with four buddies and we all enjoyed it.
Don't get me wrong, this is not a great or life-changing movie. It's just a pure entertainer that hopes you just enjoy the ride. It gets by mostly on the chemistry and likability of the four leads. All the cops in this movie are either corrupt or work so slowlythat you wonder how they solve crime at all. The main baddie is about as threatening as the wart on my dick. A better actor would have really sunk his teeth into this role, but instead we get some hack-Delroy Lindo-wannabe. Also, the ending could have been punched up a little bit because the bad guy gets let off a little too easy, and should have had to suffer a little bit more.
But none of these critiques really matter, because it was still an enjoyable movie. Expect more of a "Shaft" John Singleton than a "Boyz 'N' the Hood" John Singleton. If "Blade II" was like licking a female's pussy to orgasm, than "Four Brothers" is like this girl you fuck on the side who is a little tubby, but has a real cute face. She'd be a lot better looking if she lost 10-15 lbs by getting her twinkie-eating ass on a treadmill. And even though you know you could get better, you still enjoy the romp, 'cause she's a kinky minx in the sack.
In closing I'd give the movie *** (out of 4),
Damn Dirty Ape
