Director John Singleton returns to crime-ridden inner-city streets in Four Brothers, a movie that is part murder mystery and part sociological wish fulfillment. The murder part involves a victim, an angelic older woman, who never met a dead-end kid she wouldn't take into her foster home to turn his life around. The wish fulfillment comes when her four "sons" set out to solve and avenge her murder: Two whites and two blacks, who think, speak and act as blood brothers, go up against Detroit gangsters and cops, where corruption knows no racial divide. A white cop may be bad, and a black gangster might turn out to be a brother.
How willing you are to buy into this multiethnic fantasy might depend on how engrossed you are in the fast action, furious gunfights and the street-hardened characters' unorthodox investigative techniques. The movie possesses energy and a bunch of savvy actors, so it is highly watchable. Yet its increasing implausibility, tipping over into sheer nonsense finally, is likely to mean mixed boxoffice results in markets outside of urban venues.
David Elliot & Paul Lovett's screenplay portrays Detroit as rougher and woollier than Dodge City in a Republic Studios Western. Bad guys and good roam the streets with an arsenal of weaponry. When gunplay breaks out, nary a police officer is in sight.
Indeed, you might not be able to tell them apart except for a helpful expository primer offered by police Lt. Green (Terrence Howard) to his partner, Detective Fowler (Josh Charles), at the burial service of Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan). She performed her last good deed on Earth moments before two convenience store robbers murdered her.
The Mercer brothers all show up: Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), a mercurial roughneck just out of stir; Angel Singleton regular Tyrese Gibson), looking to hook up with hot-blooded Sofi (Sofia Vergara); and the youngster Jack Garrett Hedlund), who thinks he's a rock star. The fourth brother, Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin), is the only one with a wife and kids, so he has ambitious business plans.
Green, who once played hockey with the Mercers, advises them to leave police work to the police, which prompts Bobby to sneer. Bobby galvanizes his brothers to kick in doors, knock heads and do whatever it takes to find out who killed Mom. A favorite interviewing technique is to splash gas and threaten to light a match.
The Mercers soon realize their mom's murder was a contract killing. Which brings them up against underworld ruler Victor Sweet (British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor with a thoroughly convincing street manner).
If you take any of this seriously, you are not going to enjoy the movie very much. But as an absurd riff on baadasssss gangsta movies, Four Brothers has an undeniable visceral kick. Here, justice is swift. Bad guy gets popped in moments -- though you realize that with the brothers' interrogation style, a good guy or at least a not-so-bad guy might get popped, too. There's that much room for error.
Actors appear to be having a fine time, which always helps. Wahlberg is a full-bore hothead, a guy comfortable with the notion that a bad temper can be a good thing. Gibson is a commanding presence, as he has been in Baby Boy and 2 Fast 2 Furious. Benjamin, as the one domesticated Mercer, gives his character an appealing complexity. Hedlund has an underwritten part but brings an infectious boyish vigor to the role.
Howard, getting rave reviews for "Hustle & Flow," gives a steadiness to this less flamboyant role until the script makes him do something incredibly foolish. Ejiofor is as thoroughly repellent and unrepentant a villain as you could ask for.
A car chase and a daylight gunbattle are brilliantly executed, both flashbacks to an era when action meant stunts and not CGI. Similarly, the soundtrack is old school, ranging from Jefferson Airplane to Motown classics.
Cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr. and designer Keith Brian Burns give wintertime Detroit an appropriately chilly, inhospitable look with a lot of grays and whites -- and the occasional splash of blood red.
FOUR BROTHERS
Paramount Pictures
A di Bonaventura Pictures production
Credits:
Director: John Singleton
Screenwriters: David Elliot & Paul Lovett
Producer: Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Executive producers: Ric Kidney, Erik Howsam
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Keith Brian Burns
Music: David Arnold
Costumes: Ruth Carter
Editors: Bruce Cannon, Billy Fox
Cast:
Bobby: Mark Wahlberg
Angel: Tyrese Gibson
Jeremiah: Andre Benjamin
Jack: Garrett Hedlund
Lt. Green: Terrence Howard
Detective Fowler: Josh Charles
Sofi: Sofia Vergara
Evelyn Mercer: Fionnula Flanagan
Victor Sweet: Chiwetel Ejiofor
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 109 minutes...
How willing you are to buy into this multiethnic fantasy might depend on how engrossed you are in the fast action, furious gunfights and the street-hardened characters' unorthodox investigative techniques. The movie possesses energy and a bunch of savvy actors, so it is highly watchable. Yet its increasing implausibility, tipping over into sheer nonsense finally, is likely to mean mixed boxoffice results in markets outside of urban venues.
David Elliot & Paul Lovett's screenplay portrays Detroit as rougher and woollier than Dodge City in a Republic Studios Western. Bad guys and good roam the streets with an arsenal of weaponry. When gunplay breaks out, nary a police officer is in sight.
Indeed, you might not be able to tell them apart except for a helpful expository primer offered by police Lt. Green (Terrence Howard) to his partner, Detective Fowler (Josh Charles), at the burial service of Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan). She performed her last good deed on Earth moments before two convenience store robbers murdered her.
The Mercer brothers all show up: Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), a mercurial roughneck just out of stir; Angel Singleton regular Tyrese Gibson), looking to hook up with hot-blooded Sofi (Sofia Vergara); and the youngster Jack Garrett Hedlund), who thinks he's a rock star. The fourth brother, Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin), is the only one with a wife and kids, so he has ambitious business plans.
Green, who once played hockey with the Mercers, advises them to leave police work to the police, which prompts Bobby to sneer. Bobby galvanizes his brothers to kick in doors, knock heads and do whatever it takes to find out who killed Mom. A favorite interviewing technique is to splash gas and threaten to light a match.
The Mercers soon realize their mom's murder was a contract killing. Which brings them up against underworld ruler Victor Sweet (British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor with a thoroughly convincing street manner).
If you take any of this seriously, you are not going to enjoy the movie very much. But as an absurd riff on baadasssss gangsta movies, Four Brothers has an undeniable visceral kick. Here, justice is swift. Bad guy gets popped in moments -- though you realize that with the brothers' interrogation style, a good guy or at least a not-so-bad guy might get popped, too. There's that much room for error.
Actors appear to be having a fine time, which always helps. Wahlberg is a full-bore hothead, a guy comfortable with the notion that a bad temper can be a good thing. Gibson is a commanding presence, as he has been in Baby Boy and 2 Fast 2 Furious. Benjamin, as the one domesticated Mercer, gives his character an appealing complexity. Hedlund has an underwritten part but brings an infectious boyish vigor to the role.
Howard, getting rave reviews for "Hustle & Flow," gives a steadiness to this less flamboyant role until the script makes him do something incredibly foolish. Ejiofor is as thoroughly repellent and unrepentant a villain as you could ask for.
A car chase and a daylight gunbattle are brilliantly executed, both flashbacks to an era when action meant stunts and not CGI. Similarly, the soundtrack is old school, ranging from Jefferson Airplane to Motown classics.
Cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr. and designer Keith Brian Burns give wintertime Detroit an appropriately chilly, inhospitable look with a lot of grays and whites -- and the occasional splash of blood red.
FOUR BROTHERS
Paramount Pictures
A di Bonaventura Pictures production
Credits:
Director: John Singleton
Screenwriters: David Elliot & Paul Lovett
Producer: Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Executive producers: Ric Kidney, Erik Howsam
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Keith Brian Burns
Music: David Arnold
Costumes: Ruth Carter
Editors: Bruce Cannon, Billy Fox
Cast:
Bobby: Mark Wahlberg
Angel: Tyrese Gibson
Jeremiah: Andre Benjamin
Jack: Garrett Hedlund
Lt. Green: Terrence Howard
Detective Fowler: Josh Charles
Sofi: Sofia Vergara
Evelyn Mercer: Fionnula Flanagan
Victor Sweet: Chiwetel Ejiofor
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 109 minutes...
- 8/25/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Opens June 6
This sequel to 2001's hit "The Fast and the Furious" doesn't star Vin Diesel, and that's not all that has changed in "2 Fast 2 Furious". The original movie, a kind of souped-up rendition of an old Roger Corman youth flick, got its super-charged energy from Los Angeles' import-car street racing scene. The new film has morphed into an episode of "Miami Vice" about money laundering, crooked cops, undercover feds and, oh yes, a couple of guys who drive cars very fast.
It probably was a smart move by producer Neal H. Moritz and his new director John Singleton (taking over for Rob Cohen) to change the formula, giving this movie a new look and new location. Certainly there are enough hard bodies -- both human and mechanical -- to attract the movie's core audience of young males. Business looks robust, though "2 Fast" may not equal the $144.5 million domestic gross of the original film.
Writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (working from a story concocted with Gary Scott Thompson, who co-wrote the first film) perform due diligence in setting up the key car chases and races despite a surfeit of contrivances and credibility-stretchers. Paul Walker's Brian O'Conner, the street racer and undercover cop bounced out of the LAPD for letting Diesel's big-rig hijacker escape the law at the end of the first film, has drifted to Miami, where he picks up spending money at illegal races.
The script would have us believe that the feds in Miami desperately need a street racer to take down a slick gangster and money launderer, Carter Verone (Cole Hauser). Seems an inside source -- his girlfriend Monica (Eva Mendes), who is actually an undercover U.S. Customs officer -- has learned that Carter intends to send two cars containing large bags of cash racing down to the Florida Keys to a waiting plane on an isolated airstrip. This sounds like a strange way to move money in this day of electronic transfers and offshore banks, but that's what our cigar-smoking villain wants to do. So the feds trap Brian after his latest street race and tell him all his crimes in Miami and L.A. will disappear from the record if he applies for the job of Carter's driver.
Brian agrees on the condition that he can bring along as the second driver an old buddy, ex-con Roman Pearce (recording star and actor Tyrese). By the way, Roman blames Brian for his three-year prison stretch and hates his guts, which nicely sets up the movielong animosity between our two rebellious heroes. This hostility only gets exacerbated when Brian starts making eyes at Carter's sultry girlfriend and Roman tries to steal things in Carter's Coral Gables mansion.
For a movie with only a so-so setup and a droopy, cliche-ridden middle, "2 Fast"'s third act neatly brings together all the plot threads for an extended race/chase that pays everything off quite well. Singleton directs efficiently but with no trace of the directorial personality displayed in films that have more meaning to him.
Walker and Tyrese go for a no-frills style, giving the antiheroic protagonists solid emotional underpinnings before all the fancy driving gets started. Rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges is a natural laugh-getter as a street racing promoter, model-actress Devon Aoki adds sass as a female racer who favors cars in hot pink, and James Remar delivers his usual solid performance as a hard-ass customs agent.
Matt Gallini and Roberto (Sanz) Sanchez as Carter's thugs make perfect foils for our bad-boy heroes while losing none of their scariness. Speaking of things scary, the film contains a torture scene involving a frightened rat that will make even those with strong stomachs squirm.
While there are two races in the film, most of the stunts involve cars dodging in and around traffic in South Florida. The stunt work is superb, though Singleton favors quick cuts and tight shots, so we often do not get the full picture of all the car maneuvers.
Singleton's technical support helps him create a glossy-looking film where everyone in Miami seems to live the good life with fast cars and women readily at hand.
2 FAST 2 FURIOUS
Universal Pictures
A Neal H. Moritz production
Credits:
Director: John Singleton
Screenwriters: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas
Story by: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Gary Scott Thompson
Producer: Neal H. Moritz
Executive producers: Lee R. Mayes, Michael Fottrell
Director of photography: Matthew Leonetti
Production designer: Keith Brian Burns
Music: David Arnold
Co-producer: Heather Lieberman
Costume designer: Sanja Milkovic Hays
Editors: Bruce Cannon, Dallas Puett
Cast:
Brian O'Conner: Paul Walker
Roman Pearce: Tyrese
Monica Fuentes: Eva Mendes
Carter Verone: Cole Hauser
Tej: Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
Agent Bilkins: Thom Barry
Agent Markham: James Remar
Suki: Devon Aoki
Running time -- 107 minutes
MPAA rating -- PG-13...
This sequel to 2001's hit "The Fast and the Furious" doesn't star Vin Diesel, and that's not all that has changed in "2 Fast 2 Furious". The original movie, a kind of souped-up rendition of an old Roger Corman youth flick, got its super-charged energy from Los Angeles' import-car street racing scene. The new film has morphed into an episode of "Miami Vice" about money laundering, crooked cops, undercover feds and, oh yes, a couple of guys who drive cars very fast.
It probably was a smart move by producer Neal H. Moritz and his new director John Singleton (taking over for Rob Cohen) to change the formula, giving this movie a new look and new location. Certainly there are enough hard bodies -- both human and mechanical -- to attract the movie's core audience of young males. Business looks robust, though "2 Fast" may not equal the $144.5 million domestic gross of the original film.
Writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (working from a story concocted with Gary Scott Thompson, who co-wrote the first film) perform due diligence in setting up the key car chases and races despite a surfeit of contrivances and credibility-stretchers. Paul Walker's Brian O'Conner, the street racer and undercover cop bounced out of the LAPD for letting Diesel's big-rig hijacker escape the law at the end of the first film, has drifted to Miami, where he picks up spending money at illegal races.
The script would have us believe that the feds in Miami desperately need a street racer to take down a slick gangster and money launderer, Carter Verone (Cole Hauser). Seems an inside source -- his girlfriend Monica (Eva Mendes), who is actually an undercover U.S. Customs officer -- has learned that Carter intends to send two cars containing large bags of cash racing down to the Florida Keys to a waiting plane on an isolated airstrip. This sounds like a strange way to move money in this day of electronic transfers and offshore banks, but that's what our cigar-smoking villain wants to do. So the feds trap Brian after his latest street race and tell him all his crimes in Miami and L.A. will disappear from the record if he applies for the job of Carter's driver.
Brian agrees on the condition that he can bring along as the second driver an old buddy, ex-con Roman Pearce (recording star and actor Tyrese). By the way, Roman blames Brian for his three-year prison stretch and hates his guts, which nicely sets up the movielong animosity between our two rebellious heroes. This hostility only gets exacerbated when Brian starts making eyes at Carter's sultry girlfriend and Roman tries to steal things in Carter's Coral Gables mansion.
For a movie with only a so-so setup and a droopy, cliche-ridden middle, "2 Fast"'s third act neatly brings together all the plot threads for an extended race/chase that pays everything off quite well. Singleton directs efficiently but with no trace of the directorial personality displayed in films that have more meaning to him.
Walker and Tyrese go for a no-frills style, giving the antiheroic protagonists solid emotional underpinnings before all the fancy driving gets started. Rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges is a natural laugh-getter as a street racing promoter, model-actress Devon Aoki adds sass as a female racer who favors cars in hot pink, and James Remar delivers his usual solid performance as a hard-ass customs agent.
Matt Gallini and Roberto (Sanz) Sanchez as Carter's thugs make perfect foils for our bad-boy heroes while losing none of their scariness. Speaking of things scary, the film contains a torture scene involving a frightened rat that will make even those with strong stomachs squirm.
While there are two races in the film, most of the stunts involve cars dodging in and around traffic in South Florida. The stunt work is superb, though Singleton favors quick cuts and tight shots, so we often do not get the full picture of all the car maneuvers.
Singleton's technical support helps him create a glossy-looking film where everyone in Miami seems to live the good life with fast cars and women readily at hand.
2 FAST 2 FURIOUS
Universal Pictures
A Neal H. Moritz production
Credits:
Director: John Singleton
Screenwriters: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas
Story by: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Gary Scott Thompson
Producer: Neal H. Moritz
Executive producers: Lee R. Mayes, Michael Fottrell
Director of photography: Matthew Leonetti
Production designer: Keith Brian Burns
Music: David Arnold
Co-producer: Heather Lieberman
Costume designer: Sanja Milkovic Hays
Editors: Bruce Cannon, Dallas Puett
Cast:
Brian O'Conner: Paul Walker
Roman Pearce: Tyrese
Monica Fuentes: Eva Mendes
Carter Verone: Cole Hauser
Tej: Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
Agent Bilkins: Thom Barry
Agent Markham: James Remar
Suki: Devon Aoki
Running time -- 107 minutes
MPAA rating -- PG-13...
- 8/12/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
One of the least-considered aspects of massacres is that you might not hear about them, if for only the obvious fact that the victims aren't around to tell their story.
So it is with the Rosewood massacre of 1923, the murderous burning of a prosperous black community in rural Florida by rampaging whites under the impression that one of their women had been raped by a black.
Not recounted until a reporter brought it to the attention of CBS' "60 Minutes" in 1982, "Rosewood" is a powerful and heartbreaking dramatization of that awful saga. Eloquently directed by John Singleton, this Warner Bros. release is a stirring and sobering human tale, one that will surely touch hearts of all demographics.
Commercially, it seems a win-win for Warner Bros.: Singleton will entice the young, action-oriented black audience, while the film's subject matter and sophisticated rendering will win mature viewers in all demographics through positive word-of-mouth.
Head-and-shoulders above the usual, well-meaning, self-congratulatory folderol that makes it to the screen about racial injustice, "Rosewood" is a graceful evocation of a dignified community and a sobering insight into the madness of mob psychology. Gregory Poirier's insightful screenplay is a sobering reminder of what such learned social historians as Gustave LeBon have written about mob psychology, that the mob is an "idiot," galvanized by the lowest common denominator. In this scary scenario, we're led into an easy acquaintanceship with the film's chief character, namely the homey burg of Rosewood, a quiet black town of farmers and craftsmen -- churchgoing folk. Contiguous with Rosewood is Sumner, a less cohesive aggregation of whites and, as a group, decidedly less prosperous than their Rosewood brethren.
In style and personality, Poirier's story has the welcoming grace of a friendly host as we're initially led into an easy acquaintanceship with Rosewood, getting to know its people, its rhythms, its personality. At that same time, we catch snatches of things to come: In essence, we're clued to the pervasive racism of the day, not only from the trashier types but, most hauntingly, from the more enlightened whites of the area. Despite the surface calm, we see the festering combustible nature of the situation and, quite rightly, fear that it will take only one spark to set things off.
It's the deliberate, unforced patience of Singleton that gives "Rosewood" its heartbreaking power. His restraint in letting the story unfold, without overpunctuating or belaboring its narrative, allows the film to reach its full organic power. That carefulness and confidence, indeed, is what gives "Rosewood" its searing grace, and that's seen in the work of the film's superb technical team. Johnny E. Jensen's incandescent cinematography, John Williams' tender music and Bruce Cannon's supple edits kindle "Rosewood" to both its most warm and most incendiary moments.
The players bring textures and shadings to their roles that are, well, more than skin deep. Jon Voight's performance as a storekeeper who struggles to do the right thing, despite his own racist underpinnings, is perhaps his best work since "Midnight Cowboy". As a mysterious soldier who rides into town, Ving Rhames is mesmeric as a man of dignity and honor, while Don Cheadle also stands out as a man who refuses to, shuffle. It's Sarah Carrier though, as Rosewood's elderly matriarch, who absolutely melts your heart with her staunch decency.
ROSEWOOD
Warner Bros.
A Peters Entertainment production
in association with New Deal Prods.
A John Singleton Film
Producer Jon Peters
Director John Singleton
Screenwriter Gregory Poirier
Executive producer Tracy Barone
Co-producer Penelope L. Foster
Director of photography Johnny E. Jensen
Production designer Paul Sylbert
Editor Bruce Cannon
Costume designer Ruth Carter
Music John Williams
Color/stereo
Cast:
John Wright Jon Voight
Mann :Ving Rhames
Sylvester Carrier Don Cheadle
Duke Bruce McGill
James Taylor Loren Dean
Sarah Carrier Esther Rolle
Scrappie Elise Neal
Fannie Taylor Catherine Kellner
Sheriff Walker Michael Rooker
Running time -- 140 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
So it is with the Rosewood massacre of 1923, the murderous burning of a prosperous black community in rural Florida by rampaging whites under the impression that one of their women had been raped by a black.
Not recounted until a reporter brought it to the attention of CBS' "60 Minutes" in 1982, "Rosewood" is a powerful and heartbreaking dramatization of that awful saga. Eloquently directed by John Singleton, this Warner Bros. release is a stirring and sobering human tale, one that will surely touch hearts of all demographics.
Commercially, it seems a win-win for Warner Bros.: Singleton will entice the young, action-oriented black audience, while the film's subject matter and sophisticated rendering will win mature viewers in all demographics through positive word-of-mouth.
Head-and-shoulders above the usual, well-meaning, self-congratulatory folderol that makes it to the screen about racial injustice, "Rosewood" is a graceful evocation of a dignified community and a sobering insight into the madness of mob psychology. Gregory Poirier's insightful screenplay is a sobering reminder of what such learned social historians as Gustave LeBon have written about mob psychology, that the mob is an "idiot," galvanized by the lowest common denominator. In this scary scenario, we're led into an easy acquaintanceship with the film's chief character, namely the homey burg of Rosewood, a quiet black town of farmers and craftsmen -- churchgoing folk. Contiguous with Rosewood is Sumner, a less cohesive aggregation of whites and, as a group, decidedly less prosperous than their Rosewood brethren.
In style and personality, Poirier's story has the welcoming grace of a friendly host as we're initially led into an easy acquaintanceship with Rosewood, getting to know its people, its rhythms, its personality. At that same time, we catch snatches of things to come: In essence, we're clued to the pervasive racism of the day, not only from the trashier types but, most hauntingly, from the more enlightened whites of the area. Despite the surface calm, we see the festering combustible nature of the situation and, quite rightly, fear that it will take only one spark to set things off.
It's the deliberate, unforced patience of Singleton that gives "Rosewood" its heartbreaking power. His restraint in letting the story unfold, without overpunctuating or belaboring its narrative, allows the film to reach its full organic power. That carefulness and confidence, indeed, is what gives "Rosewood" its searing grace, and that's seen in the work of the film's superb technical team. Johnny E. Jensen's incandescent cinematography, John Williams' tender music and Bruce Cannon's supple edits kindle "Rosewood" to both its most warm and most incendiary moments.
The players bring textures and shadings to their roles that are, well, more than skin deep. Jon Voight's performance as a storekeeper who struggles to do the right thing, despite his own racist underpinnings, is perhaps his best work since "Midnight Cowboy". As a mysterious soldier who rides into town, Ving Rhames is mesmeric as a man of dignity and honor, while Don Cheadle also stands out as a man who refuses to, shuffle. It's Sarah Carrier though, as Rosewood's elderly matriarch, who absolutely melts your heart with her staunch decency.
ROSEWOOD
Warner Bros.
A Peters Entertainment production
in association with New Deal Prods.
A John Singleton Film
Producer Jon Peters
Director John Singleton
Screenwriter Gregory Poirier
Executive producer Tracy Barone
Co-producer Penelope L. Foster
Director of photography Johnny E. Jensen
Production designer Paul Sylbert
Editor Bruce Cannon
Costume designer Ruth Carter
Music John Williams
Color/stereo
Cast:
John Wright Jon Voight
Mann :Ving Rhames
Sylvester Carrier Don Cheadle
Duke Bruce McGill
James Taylor Loren Dean
Sarah Carrier Esther Rolle
Scrappie Elise Neal
Fannie Taylor Catherine Kellner
Sheriff Walker Michael Rooker
Running time -- 140 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 2/10/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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