Movie Haiku - Four Brothers

www.fourbrothersmovie.com


Dir: John Singleton


Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund


She raised four bad lads

oh my god they killed mommy

fisticuffs on ice


They always say that things come in threes, so after witnessing Andre Benjamin's previous forays into Hollywood with Be Cool and Revolver, two of the biggest turkeys this side of Christmas, you'll appreciate the trepidation with which I approached his third film this year. Four Brothers begins with the shooting of a kind old lady during a robbery at a convenience store. Turns out that said old lady was a bit of a goody-two-shoes around Detroit and looked after wayward kids, bringing up four of the worst cases as her own children. Reunited by their grief, the four brothers - hot-headed Bobby (Wahlberg), womaniser Angel (Gibson), father figure Jeremiah (Benjamin) and young rock dude Jack (Hedlund) - move back into Mom's house, along with Angel's feisty Spanish girlfriend. The cops aren't getting very far with their investigations, so the brothers take matters into their own hands and quickly uncover a tangled web of shady business dealings, hired shooters and crooked cops which Jeremiah seems to know a lot more about than he's letting on. The relationship between the brothers is probably the strongest thing going for the film; their banter is always sharp and the changing dynamic between the four keeps the audience engaged. That being said, Wahlberg is awful here, leaden and out of shape - Rowdy Roddy Piper could do a more convincing job - and after having had a couple of early box office hits surely he's headed straight towards DTV hell for the rest of his career. Despite my initial misgivings Benjamin is actually one of the better actors on view here, lending a bit of authority and nous to the part of the older, wiser Jeremiah. Best of all is Chiwetel Ejiofor as kingpin Victor Sweet, embodying the kind of role Laurence Fishburne used to play with relish many years ago. As the brothers wage their own personal battle against Victor and his lackeys, director Singleton loosens his grip on reality somewhat. There's car chases and shoot-outs in suburban Detroit, yet there's not a soul to witness them - apparently because it's snowy weather. Things get even more stupid as the film nears its climax, with Angel's foolhardy plan to expose the dirty cop (why does the bad guy never just shoot the good guy in the head when he has the chance, eh?), and best of all, the final confrontation out on this vast expanse of ice where Bobby just appears out of nowhere - like, err, was he hiding behind a snowman or what? It's a flat snowscape as far as the eye can see, so where the hell did he come from? Add to that one or two inappropriate bits of comedy - the police interrogation scenes, and the portrayal of Angel's girlfriend - which just feel clumsy and awkward; but I suppose without any levity Four Brothers would be an incredibly self-important, po-faced piece of film making. Still, it's mildly diverting and there's a nice David Arnold score to enjoy - and hey, at least we got some proper end credits this week, although having said that, these end credits do contain some of the most incongruous deleted scenes I've ever seen! I ought to conclude with an acknowledgement to Andre, as he did manage to avoid the triple-whammy of movie abominations - just by the skin of his excessively large teeth.

soulmining rating: **