Salt Lake Tribune Review
It's hard to pinpoint where "Four Brothers," director
John Singleton's semi-comic revenge drama, begins to go off the rails -- though the scene where a supposedly ferocious gangster (played by
Chiwetel Ejiofor, from "Dirty Pretty Things") orders a minion to sit at the kiddies' table might be a good place to start.
The off-kilter premise -- sort of a remake of the 1965 John Wayne Western "The Sons of Katie Elder" -- starts with the four foster children adopted by a tough-but-tender Detroit street angel, Evelyn Mercer (
Fionnula Flanagan), reuniting for Evelyn's funeral. Two of the men, ex-cons Bobby (
Mark Wahlberg) and Jack (
Garrett Hedlund), are white; the other two, ex-thug and ex-Marine Angel (
Tyrese Gibson) and struggling businessman Jeremiah (
Andre Benjamin, a k a Andre 3000 from OutKast), are black.
The four brothers, led by Bobby, want revenge for Evelyn's death in a convenience-store robbery. As they poke around Detroit's underworld, they realize her death was not a random event. They follow a trail of clues, through shady politicians and corrupt cops, straight to Ejiofor's Victor Sweet.
The script, by
David Elliot ("The Watcher") and
Paul Lovett, aims for an
Elmore Leonard-like mix of rough violence and comically oddball characters -- like Sweet or Detroit's only honest cop, Det. Green ("Hustle & Flow" star
Terrence Howard). Singleton brings his "Boyz * the Hood" street cred and his "2 Fast 2 Furious" action skills to bear, but he's no Tarantino, which is the sensibility needed to make the script's darkly comic tone work.
It doesn't help that among the leads, only Benjamin, the neophyte of the bunch, creates any sparks. The best action is watching the supporting turns from Howard, Ejiofor and, in a brief gem as Jeremiah's no-bull wife,
Taraji P. Henson (Howard's prostitute girlfriend in "Hustle & Flow"). But they are small consolation for the big disappointment of "Four Brothers."
The rundown: A sort of urban Western, about four foster brothers seeking revenge on whoever killed the woman who took them in.
Synopsis: After their adoptive mother is murdered during a grocery store hold-up, the Mercer brothers--hotheaded Bobby, hard-edged Angel, family man and businessman Jeremiah, and hard rocking Jack--reunite to take the matter of her death into their own hands. As they track down the killer, they quickly realize that their old ways of doing business have new consequences.
