Four Brothers

Four Brothers (Director: John Singleton)

Singleton made a smash in 1991 with Boyz N the Hood. Then he struggled a little bit with Poetic Justice and Higher Learning (although it has its followers). He jumped back into critical acclaim with Rosewood. Since then he has delved into the mainstream with the reimagining of Shaft and 2 Fast 2 Furious. He had time for one more indie in Baby Boy inbetween those.

This is another revenge film, and I guess the rules of storytelling just go out the window when that's the case. It's one of those films where you watch and can't believe that characters could alternately be so dumb and so smart from scene to scene--you know, whenever it's convenient.

Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan) is a caring woman who raised four delinquent children, and she is about to get shot in a Detroit corner market. Now, the four grown children, two white and two black, come to her funeral and then start wondering why someone would want to kill her. Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Angel (Tyrese Gibson), Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin), and Jack (Garrett Hedlund) start hearing rumors about who's responsible, and start kickin' down some doors to get to the bottom of it.

So, keeping in mind that they're going through rough sections of Detroit here, we are forced to buy that they could go into a seedy club with some guns and not get guns drawn on them themselves. Then there's a scene where the four brothers see the surveillance video, and from this video Bobby surmises that their mother was set up to get shot in the store. With what evidence? There isn't any...just "something doesn't add up." Then there's the storming of a high school basketball game. This movie is more absurd than Deuce Bigalow. The brothers then start a high body count, and detectives Green (Terrence Howard in movie #3 this summer) and Fowler (subtle, ain't it? Played by Dead Poets alum Josh Charles) start ineffectively warning the brothers to ease off their vigilante investigation. Oh, but the tale of deceit and lies and skullduggery just gets deeper. Could one of the brothers be behind it? Could be.

There's also a top-level gang that comes into the picture, run by Dirty Pretty Things' Chiwetel Ojiofor as Victor Sweet, who steals the movie for recognizing how ridiculous it all is. You will not believe the stupid-ass things these guys do after doing some incredibly (too incredibly) smart things. After seeing Terrence Howard in Crash and Hustle & Flow, you'll realize what disrespect this movie shows towards him before it ends. You might have fun with it if you like inconsistency.