Undercover Brother

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.

OK, OK, it's basically a black "Austin Powers," but it's not claiming to be more than that, it's reasonably well made, and a good 65% is downright hilarious. But I agree completely with the member who said this is a movie you have to "get." Meaning that, as a 40-year-old A.A. male seeing this in a downtown Washington theatre with a strong presence of folks my age and slightly above (i.e., old enough to remember when all of the black references were taken seriously), then not only did I get it but so did the rest of the audience -- the perfect conditions in which to see this movie. Chances are most (under 25, non-black) folks who don't fall into at least one of these catagories better stick with "Episode II," even on the 3rd go-around. The member who tried to compare the two films is precisely what I mean by not getting it.

I realize it's an odd concept -- a summer movie that ISN'T made to appeal to absolutely everyone -- but, hey. See for yourself. What it is!

An Afro-American organization, the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D., is in permanent fight against a white organization, The Man, defending the values of the black people in North America. When the Afro-American candidate Gen. Warren Boutwell (Billy Dee Williams) has a weird behavior in his presidential campaign, the Undercover Brother (Eddie Griffin) is hired to work undercover in the white organization and find what happened with the potential candidate.

I do not recall the last time I laughed so much with a comedy. "Undercover Brother" is one of the most hilarious and silly comedies I have ever seen, and very underrated in IMDb. The story is a big joke with the North American racism, both white and black, with very funny situations "à la Austin Powers". I believe this is the major point of the plot, keeping a neutral position and ridiculing and satirizing racism of Caucasians and Blacks. Dave Chappelle is the funniest, but Chris Kattan, Eddie Griffin, Aunjanue Ellis, Denise Richards and the rest of the cast are also amazingly funny. I did not understand the joke with mayonnaise, but I believe that usually Afro-American people do not like this dressing, or at least there is a clichés about in USA. There are many other jokes related to the North American culture that are impossible to be understood by an overseas viewer, but anyway I loved this movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Undercover Brother – Com a Cor e a Coragem" ("Undercover Brother – With the Color and Courage")

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!

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.

If you are still reading ...

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.