As Hollywood-ized as the details are, the overall picture feels independent and honest.
Four Brothers (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:125
Fresh:65
Rotten:60
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: Despite striking a believable rapport among its principal actors, Four Brothers overwhelms with ultra-violent, vigilante-glorifying action and devolves into too many fractured, insubstantial thematic directions.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong violence, pervasive language and some sexual content
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Aug 12, 2005 Wide
Box Office: $74,484,168
Synopsis: When their beloved foster mother is killed in a holdup, four tough brothers reunite in their old Detroit neighborhood with revenge on their minds. Mark Wahlberg plays the brawl-hungry leader,... When their beloved foster mother is killed in a holdup, four tough brothers reunite in their old Detroit neighborhood with revenge on their minds. Mark Wahlberg plays the brawl-hungry leader, Bobby. His brother, Angel (Tyrese Gibson), is a rowdy sailor with a high-strung Latina girlfriend (Sofi Vergara). Garrett Hedlun plays the young rock & roller of the clan. And Outkast's Andre 3000 is the family man whose tenuous mob connection may link him to the killers. Director John Singleton ably blends his action skills (SHAFT, 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS) and his gift for capturing the warm heart at the center of violent urban masculinity (BABY BOY, BOYZ N THE HOOD) to create a cooked-to-perfection gangsta stew. A soundtrack jammed with 1970s Motown classics roots everything firmly in the gritty tradition of the best of that decade's blaxploitation and urban revenge thrillers. Action highlights include a skidding car chase through snowy streets, some rough street hockey, and a bullet-intensive neighborhood shoot-out. With its talented, likeable cast, clever plotting, and sharp dialogue, this is a real crowd-pleaser that nonetheless doesn't shy away from depictions of street violence. There's not an ounce of fat on it--no extraneous romance, and no going "straight" at the end. Terrence Howard (HUSTLE & FLOW) is the well-meaning but ineffectual detective who tries to put a lid on the boys' rebelliousness. The spirits of Dirty Harry and Charles Bronson should be proud, and action fans will be well pleased. [More]
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund, Terrence Howard, Josh Charles, Chjwetel Ejiofor, Paul Stewart
Director: John Singleton
Director: John Singleton
Screenwriter: David Elliott, Paul Lovett
Producer: Lorenzo Di Bonaventura
Composer: David Arnold
Studio: Paramount Pictures
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Reviews for Four Brothers
Four Brothers is a violent, macho story with a perfect feel for the dynamics between four tough guys who will do anything for each other.
This is not a simple revenge film. It is also a reminder that America in the new millenium is far more cruel than the America of the 20th century.
Although there is some undeniable entertainment value here, the plot of Four Brothers ultimately proves to be pretty standard.
The plot is as rickety as the home all but destroyed in a hail of machine-gun bullets
...rooted in its usual cliched and conventional mode...a transparent revenge-seeking rouser with all the psychological complexity and bluntness of a rusty sledgehammer
The undeniable chemistry between the four actors adds real emotional weight to the story.
As long as the action snaps and the violence feels (somewhat) righteous, there'll always be a place for movies such as Four Brothers -- on rainy Saturdays, on TNT.
An unsatisfying attempt to bring the B Western motif to the contemporary urban setting.
A surprise of a summer movie. It’s got action to hold up against the comic books but enough style and substance to make it memorable.
If Four Brothers spent half as much energy making us feel something for its heroes as it spent making us feel nothing for their victims, it would be a far better, and far more engaging, film.
Four Brothers, a guns-blazing ... sentimental revenge drama, takes place in a violence-riddled place where the words law and enforcement don't necessarily go together.
Loud, stupid, unrealistic, overdone, without a thought in its ugly little head and kind of enjoyable.
The sometimes absurd Brothers works only on a larger-than-life level. But on that level, the zest is back.
The chemistry between Wahlberg, Gibson, Hedlund and Benjamin makes this fast, funny and pretty violent film more than just a Western rip-off.
Most distressing, however, isn't the movie's high tide of bogus gangsta posturing, but its genuinely idiotic and irresponsible glorification of precisely the attitudes that Boyz n the Hood once depicted as vapid, self-replicating and suicidal.
Despite its basic stupidity, it's the most compelling and audience-pleasing of Singleton's sell-out movies.
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