|
|
  
Back Shelf Beauties
|
Four Brothers Let's make it official and call 2005, "The Year of Terrence Howard." The guy is everywhere, and doing great work in each movie. He's on the tip of Oscar voters' tongues for his performance in Hustle & Flow. He was vastly underrated in Crash, but you won't be able to miss him this fall as a co-star in the 50 Cent biopic Get Rich of Die Tryin'. While his appearance in Four Brothers is almost like a vacation for him, Howard still makes something out of the small role. If he keeps doing work like this, I might have to become president of his fan club. Mark "Don't Call Me Marky Mark" Wahlberg stars as Bobby Mercer - leader of four grown foster children who have reunited in Detroit after their foster mother, Evelyn (Fionnula Flanagan) has been killed in an apparent robbery gone awry. Of course, they don't trust the cops assigned to the case, Lt. Green (Terrence Howard) and Det. Fowler (Josh Charles), and rumors around the neighborhood have got the four wondering if there is more to the case than anyone is aware. As Bobby, Angel (Tyrese Gibson), Jack (Garrett Hedlund) and Jeremiah (Andre 3000 Benjamin) conduct their own investigation to find the real killers, the brothers stumble onto something even bigger than they could have imagined, and realize getting revenge for their mother's murder will be harder than anticipated. Can they find the killers? Who is going to try to stop them? Four Brothers is an interesting murder mystery full of gritty action and enough twists and turns to challenge those who are willing to play along with the murder mystery. If you just want action, it has that, too. Director John Singleton and writers David Elliott and Paul Lovett do a great job taking us deeper and deeper into the mystery, deeper into the corruption you find in big cities, and always make the audience question the validity of the information gathered by the cops and the brothers, as well as the motives of everyone they come across. Four Brothers is one of those good movies that surprises you as you think you have it figured out, but it goes for the comic relief too much. In the middle of this hard core drama and action film, Singleton and company sometimes go for jokes when they aren't necessary. Granted, some of the comic relief is well timed and a smart choice at times, but ends up more like a guest that overstays his welcome. This is most evident towards the end of the movie. After a solid, even inspired, climax, Singleton sticks us with two more scenes that are not extremely necessary and ruin the mood with their attempts at squeezing out a few more laughs. As the tension and drama start to increase, the humor should have decreased, especially since Singleton has actors who can grab our attention. Wahlberg is very believable as the tough guy who is a bit on edge, and deftly handles his serious and comic moments. However, it's the lesser known actors who will surprise you. I thought Andre 3000, playing the brother trying to launch his dream business, was fantastic, as well as Howard as the hard working cop willing to investigate a murder no one else cares about. Both are very natural and quietly grab your attention without showing effort. Also, watch out for Chiwetel Ejiofor as the very mean and menacing Victor Sweet - the tough crime lord who is rough on his soldiers and others he forces into doing his bidding. Like Andre 3000 and Howard, he dials it down a notch to avoid being an overblown stereotype. Instead, he fills the crime lord with anger and intimidation. Four Brothers could have been more serious and had more of a complicated plot, but it's still very good. 2 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2005 - WaffleMovies.com
|
