Four Brothers

I have to admit "Four Brothers" is not a movie I was giddy about seeing. I didn't have really high expectations and why should I, much less you? Well, if you do have high expectations, you better lower them, because "Four Brothers" is not a deep and involving picture but is really more of a straight-forward action flick with a few sly one-liners thrown in for good measure.

There's not a single wince of brain activity throughout it, though the four "brothers" of the title (Mark Wahlberg, Andre Benjamin, Tyrese Gibson, Garrett Hedlund), explained by one character as being "total f**k-ups," do express a convincing degree of unity in that you actually believe they're related through their deceased, adopted mother Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan).

Wahlberg is Bobby Mercer, the courageous tough-talking eldest brother and the one with a chip on his shoulder. Not surprisingly, he does the most talking and is the obvious leader. Benjamin is Jeremiah Mercer, the only one of the four to really make something of himself in that he has a legitimate business, a wife (Taraji P. Henson) and children, and the closest ties to their mother. Gibson is Angel Mercer, a (former) soldier of fortune who has the ladies (including feisty Latina Sofia Vergara), the bragging rights, and the connections. Lastly, Hedlund is Jack Mercer, the youngest and grungiest of the four who's also a wannabe rocker and had the most troublesome childhood of them all.

The four are reunited at the funeral of their dear mom, who was viciously slain in a liquor store robbery. The brothers suspect that because of the particularly heinous nature of the crime, their mother may not have been some innocent bystander but was really executed, and the robbery itself was just there to throw off the cops.

After much contemplation and not even bothering to heed the warnings of two flaky detectives (played by Terrence Howard and Josh Charles), the four go after their mom's killer. It shouldn't be any surprise that they find their mother had been inadvertently drawn into the middle of some big insurance scheme or something along those lines (it's not really all that well explained), so the brothers look to settle the score with anyone - everyone.

As directed by John Singleton (whose outstanding landmark 1991 debut "Boyz N the Hood" remains the pinnacle of his career), "Four Brothers" is loud, dumb, and violent. The plot does a little more than resemble "The Sons of Katie Elder" (1965), which I haven't seen, but I doubt it was as lacking in intelligence as "Four Brothers."

However, the movie should be praised because it is strangely appealing (the totally PC leads notwithstanding), and the action is fast and furious, culminating in an impossible car chase through the ice-slicked Detroit streets during a snowstorm. And Singleton shows he hasn't completely lost my respect in that he's a good director during these scenes and succeeds in creating a believable atmosphere of unity amongst the four brothers.

I expect this movie to be a success, since it's the last week of the summer and the August season of blockbusters has passed. But hey, it's the last week of the summer, "Four Brothers" is playing, and so don't everybody rush to the theaters. OK?

7/10

I'm drawn to movies whose trailers inspire a visceral reaction...This one's is so clichéd...Poor old Mom gets whacked and her adopted sons go after the crooks...Still, the action in the trailer inspired me...gave me that feeling of wanting to see the bad guys get it, and after seeing the film, I can say I was not disappointed. The story moves along and does not step outside of itself. There are some intriguing plot twists, but the goal of revenge always remains. The performances are solid; we have experienced film actors and a director here who know what they're doing. Even the newer actors settle into their respective roles...

John Singleton stated he wanted to do something with a "western edge" and in this film he has done just that. The story could be transplanted 100 years back and still work. While there is a great deal of action, violence, and bloodshed, it is not shot with an abundance of CGI or special effects...to that end, the action looks and feels more realistic. The film pulls you in and takes you for a nice ride, which is more than can be said of a lot of recent releases...It's not going to win Oscars, but it should be a hit. It's definitely worth a look!

I've always loved revenge movies, and this one fits the bill because it has four brothers trying to find out the truth of their mother's murder. The four brothers are all superb in their roles, as adopted brothers from foster care that went their separate ways, who come home to find out who killed their mother and why. The 8 minute AOL trailer on the movies sold me. Also superb is Terrence Howard as a Detroit cop who doesn't trust his own who is desperately trying to find out what happened himself. The plot is well executed through twists and turns. Mark Wahlberg just gets better and better. He was great in "Three Kings," and he is better here.

I had been scoping this movie since it was called "Untitled Mark Wahlberg Project'. Being directed by John Singleton and starring Mark Wahlberg it looked promising. I knew I wanted to see it after reading 5/5 reviews and seeing entertaining trailers of it. Eventually I saw it for a friends's birthday party, and I was impressed!

A standout thing in this movie is that it perfectly combines the action, comedy and drama genres together. At times it can have you laughing out loud, others it can have you quite sad and on the edge of your seat in excitement viewing the great action scenes.

The four lead actors do a great job. Mark Wahlberg plays a character which is different from what he normally plays and he pulls it off well. Andre Benjamin (or Andre 3000 from OutKast) does a great job too. He is definitely much better than just the usual rapper turned actor.

The story is great. It has a much thicker plot than what would be expected from a revenge movie. In fact, that is another standout thing, the original storyline.

Overall this is definitely a movie you should see. A refreshing change from the comedy remakes we normally see coming out of the theater. One that will be on my to buy list.

I was ready to bet that this was a remake after an older movie. Great 60's and 70's music, the endless theme of the small town terrorized by a villain and the rise to justice of the people involved, Mark Wahlberg... ;)

OK, I am unfair to the man, but it's true isn't it? He is always cast into old looking movies or remakes. I actually like how he is playing. I think that he is a reasonable actor and has potential beyond the action movies in which we've become accustomed to seeing him.

The plot is quite simple: adoptive mother of four and town saint gets killed by thugs. The four brothers kick ass accordingly. But beyond the obvious cliché, the movie was quite good. The actors played well, the feelings were nicely transmitted to the audience and the details were realistic enough and emotion conveying. Actually, for this kind of movie, I am ready to grade high.

The bad thing about this film were the villains. Unconvincing small time crooks that suddenly have the power to hire people with Steyr Augur rifles and other high power weapons. Unconvincing crooked cop who has no motive for actually being corrupt. In the end, the movie is rather relaxing, considering we never meet anything unexpected.

Worth a watch, although I would rate it as a TV movie, to watch in bed, rather than a cinema thing.