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
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