Undercover Brother

If you find 'Family Guy', 'Married ... with Children' or even 'The Simpsons' to be in bad taste, you may want to avoid this movie. If you found 'Good Times' and 'What's Happening!' to be stereotypical and buffoonish, you probably won't like this movie.

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According to this movie, African Americans have made numerous advances as a result of the Civil Rights movement. But a powerful Caucasian male known as 'The Man', whose face we never see, wants to put black people back in their place.

Which is why the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. must stop him.

If there was such a person as 'The Man', he could have written this movie.

Eddie Griffin did quite a good job in what were essentially two roles. Most of the time, he had the giant afro and the cool clothes and the classic Cadillac pumping out funky 70s music as he represented everything good (or bad, depending on your view) about the 'blaxploitiation' genre. And he worked undercover as Anton Jackson wearing a suit and acting more white than I do. A very good contrast, showing a lot of acting skill.

Billy Dee Williams nailed the potential presidential candidate obviously based on Colin Powell, who was acting very strange for some reason. Not quite stereotypical, because he was always dignified--but shouldn't have been. His advertising campaign was hilarious!

Denise Richards and Aunjanue Ellis also gave good performances as the two female partners of Undercover Brother--one when he was black, and one when he was undercover.

Chi McBride and Gary Anthony Williams were very funny as two of Undercover Brother's associates. And Dave Chappelle was very stereotypical, very racist, but very funny--it was just satire, after all. Neil Patrick Harris did quite a good job as the organization's token white. And let's not forget the one associate of 'The Man' who seemed to want to be black and even acted black at times. That must have been Chris Kattan.

With all these talented actors, there were of course very clever writers to make the material so hilarious. It takes real talent to produce satire as opposed to just being mean-spirited.

The music was good too, for this type of movie. I personally would like to have heard Jay-Z do Lawrence Welk. Or maybe not. Today's artists don't often sound as good as, say, Rod Stewart. I'm not hopeless, though. I can't stand Michael Bolton or Celine Dion or, even though he wasn't mentioned but could have been, Kenny G. For some reason I do like 'Jungle Boogie' by Kool and the Gang.

I highly recommend this movie for fans of satire.

I loved "Undercover Brother!" It's the movie "Pootie Tang" should have been! I found it over-the-top, laugh-out-loud funny! Eddie Griffin scores as Undercover Brother, an afrolicious version of Austin Powers. And Chris Kattan is hilarious as Mr. Feather, an evil underling of The Man, devoted to the white man's dominance, but succumbing to hip-hop influence. Other funny performances came from Dave Chappelle as the paranoid Conspiracy Brother, and Neil Patrick Harris as the clueless caucasian intern Lance. Some viewers may complain about the black stereotypes, but you must look at it as black actors and filmmakers laughing at themselves. It's all a "solid" laugh!

UNDERCOVER BROTHER (2002) **** Eddie Griffin, Chris Kattan, Denise Richards, Aunjanue Ellis, Dave Chappelle, Chi McBride, Gary Anthony Williams, Neil Patrick Harris, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Noseworthy, James Brown (as himself). Hysterically funny adaptation of the cult Internet animated hero tailor made for Griffin (finally a vehicle to prove he's one funny guy) – a self-defined hero with a style not unlike Shaft or Superfly (well, at least the funky duds and humongo Afro with pork chop sideburns) – who teams up with THE B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D - an underground secret agency for the African American way of life – out to thwart The Man from whitewashing America. I haven't laughed from beginning to end of a comedy in many a moon and practically every sight gag, one-liner, and/or slapstick works on every level, low and highbrow thanks to the character's creator John Ridley (who collaborated on the riotous script with Michael McCullers) but it's hats off to Chappelle as the militant headstrong Conspiracy Brother that steals the show with every outrageous vent of his angry spleen; the sexy duplicity of babelicious Richards as Penelope Snow (aka White She-Devil) – ‘the black man's Kryptonite' – whose hellacious curves and pouty demeanor is campily and knowingly spoofed to full effect; Elllis equally hot and cool as ass-kicking Sista Girl; rotund nerd Williams as Smart Brother the techno dweeb; McBride as the gruff yet lovable Chief; Harris as white boy intern Lance (who arguably has one of the funniest cinematic breakdown fights ever put onscreen) and finally formidably nutty foil Kattan as right hand flunky to the archenemy. In the same vein as AUSTIN POWERS, ZOOLANDER & POOTIE TANG : quite simply the year's funniest film and one of the funniest films ever made. Solid! (Dir: Malcolm D. Lee)

Undercover Brother is a smart and sassy comedy similar to Austin Powers. Eddie Griffin stars as Undercover Brother a smooth seceret agent type cat who is out to save the world from the Man. He gets help from the brother hood who have employess with names like Conspiracy Brother & Smart Brother and Sistah Girl. The supporting cast of Chi McBride, Chris Kattan and Denise Richards are all very good but Dave Chapple steals every scene he's in. Malcom D.Lee has made a worthy follow up to The Best Man and Unisversal may have a new franchise on their hands.

...Most of the time, the type of comedies we get are teen comedies that pretty much only focus on sexual topics. Not my cup of tea. It's just not funny.

But here, we have a brilliantly funny comedy about a black man mentally stuck in the 70s who's out their protecting racial equality. We also have "The Brotherhood," a secret organization doing the same thing, consisting of mostly blacks. But they stress the message that you just have to be "down" to be in the brotherhood, and you don't have to be black. At first, it seems like only blacks are welcome. But then they realize that working as an equal team is how the job should really be done, regardless of one's race. So this movie has a good message, despite all the racial jokes.

But enough of that. This movie is hilarious! The jokes they make about both black culture and white culture kept me laughing all the way through. You can't take it too seriously. If you do, getting offended will come with the territory for you, and that's not what this movie is about. What goes through my head when the jokes are cracked is, "That's exactly how it is!" And I'm a white guy.

Sure, a lot of the jokes are ones that have been used before. But the WAY they're used in this movie and the creativity behind it all is what made me laugh.

So if you don't get offended easily by culture jokes, and you're in the mood to laugh a lot, this movie is for you.