Quatre frères

As the Summer is winding down that means a couple things. One is that Fall/Winter feel-good, and more animated movies than you can count are coming to theaters. Also, it also means that the Summer Movies of 05 are closing. HOO-RAYYY!!! But wait hold on, before it is gone one of few good movies sneaks in. It is the new John Singleton movie Four Brothers, and what a good one it is.

Four Brothers is about four adopted degenerates whose mom is murdered and they come back to their old camping ground to, one bury her, and the other, to look for her killers and bury them as well. It starts out fantastic, then loses a little steam, and at the end comes together perfectly to have you talking about it at the water cooler the next day.

Mark Walbergh, Garrett Hedlund, Andre 3000, and Tyrese Gibson play the four brothers and do a fantastic job as playing the delinquents. They really look like they're right out of the mean streets of Michigan. They also act and speak like it as well. So if you're thinking about taking little kiddies (5-12) you might want to make sure they can handle it because there is enough profanity and shooting to go around. So, if you are looking for a good film this Summer, check one out you might pass over called Four Brothers.

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!

If you had ever told me that I would end up really liking a movie starring Marky Mark from the Funky Bunch and the lead singer of Outkast (the perpetrators of one of the most annoying songs in recent history - Hey Ya) then I would've laughed right in your face. Come on, a movie with three rappers (Tyrese throws down the rhymes also, yo!)? There's no way I would've expected that to satisfy my entertainment needs. But I'm man enough to admit that I would've been wrong.

Four Brothers is a gritty, testosterone-fueled crowd pleaser that mixes drama, action, and humor. If you're looking for something light and fluffy then keep on looking because you won't find it here. But if you're in the mood to see some bad guys get pumped full of bullets and fists then this will put a smile on your face. The audience at the screening I attended was clapping and cheering throughout the movie. You'd have thought we were at a wrestling match.

This plays out a bit like a Western. A wrong is done, a posse seeks to get revenge against the wrongdoers, and the wrongdoers are painted in such an unlikable fashion that you're just begging for them to taste a little vigilante justice.

As for the good guys, well, they fall under the "anti-hero" moniker. They aren't scared to sidestep the law in order to get what they're after. But within the context of the movie you can't really blame their motives. Their mother adopted them when nobody else wanted anything to do with them. They were considered lost causes, yet she took them in, gave them a family, and put her faith in them.

They didn't turn out to be saints, but as one cop says, "They're Congressmen compared to what they would've been." Now their mother, just an old lady always trying to do good, is dead and the cops don't seem to be doing anything about it. Wrongs have to be made right, and the brothers decide they're the ones that have to make it right.

This is one of those movies that I figured I'd somewhat enjoy, but I walked out of the theater thinking, "Man, I didn't expect it to be THAT good!" It's rare that I find such a diamond in the rough, so I savor it as if I'm Rob Schneider at a stupid movie convention.

One reason I had my doubts going in was I feared it might be drowned in loud, annoying hip-hop stylings. Plus, every Outkast song I've ever heard has made me want to gouge my eardrums with a letter opener, so I feared the worst from Andre Benjamin. "How annoying is this guy going to be?" I asked myself. But all my fears were unfounded. Instead, we're surrounded by a world of crooked cops, bad guys who wear man-furs, surprisingly good acting, believable chemistry, a couple of subtle twists, and a really cool car chase on ice. I'm always up for a good revenge flick, and I'm happy to report that this one exceeded my expectations.

THE GIST

Are you easily offended by violent revenge flicks? Then use your common sense and skip out on Four Brothers. But if that sounds like your kind of movie then I think you'll find this one works great within the genre.

I remember first seeing the trailer for this movie about a year ago before a movie I watched last summer and thought it looked very promising. A year later I had almost forgot about it until I started seeing commercials on TV and I got my hopes high. To be honest, this is probably the first movie that met my expectations.

I didn't go in expecting the greatest movie ever, I mean it does have Marky Mark in it and I'd hate to think he's be the start of my favorite movie of all time. But I did expect it to be exciting, emotional, and engaging... And it was.

One of the things this movie does best is show the love and commitment between the brothers. The chemistry between the actors was excellent and really added to the feel of the film. It takes a lot to get emotion out of me in a movie, I'm talking the beginning of Saving Private Ryan a lot, so I unfortunately didn't feel as much as some of the other people in the theater, but you know something is right when people cheer when the main characters kill bad guys and yell "NO!" when things don't go right. The emotions between the brothers also led to many very funny comic moments, which I did not expect to see as many as I did. I laughed many times.

Singleton is probably a better write than director, but he does a decent job through out. Most of the film is simple camera angles and what not, but there were a few moments, specifically a car chase, that was shot really well. It was all done in a manor that kept it realistic while keeping it interesting. It should also be noted that this movie had the SECOND most intense shoot out I've ever seen in a movie. Second only to, of course, the LA streets shoot out in Heat which, in my opinion, is the most intense 15 minutes ever filmed.

Acting was decent. Like mentioned before, the chemistry between the brothers was great, but there were many simple one-liners and Mark Wahlberg seems to play the same character way too often. Not really acting so much as reading lines in a tough way.

While this isn't the #1 movie of the year it definitely met my expectations and is a very, very good summer action flick of not more.

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.