For a movie that's all over the map, Four Brothers is surprisingly grounded in spite of its sometimes-schizophrenic scenario.
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
A solidly built, yet forgettable revenge action movie that is notable mostly for its outstanding young cast.
The film seems to be intentionally C-grade, reveling in its TV-cop-show expository dialogue, cartoonish violence and 1970s soul songs that fit scenes a bit too snugly.
Combines the loose vibe of '2 Fast 2 Furious' with the neighborhood and community portraiture that has been a Singleton specialty since 'Boyz'...
What holds us are the actors, including Terrence Howard as a cop who grew up with the brothers.
Singleton's love of exploitation (he's morphing into Tarantino) is rooted in the 1970s, and there's something very Berry Gordy about this Detroit, from the soul music to the Kojak cars that everyone seems to drive.
Easily the best 1975 B-movie made in 2005, Four Brothers is a raucously entertaining vigilante film.
It's like Anything Can Happen Day on The Mickey Mouse Club, but with a higher body count.
[Singleton's] sloppiest, laziest movie to date, springing to life in fits and starts, risibly mawkish and occasionally gripping, and often feeling like it was made up on the set.
Four Brothers takes some pains to add an emotional overlay to the proceedings, to connect, albeit roughly, with the notion that a character's humanity can be part of the on-screen equation.
The characters are absurdly thin, and the film occupies a logic-free zone where anything screenwriters David Elliot and Paul Lovett can invent gets put on the screen.
It’s got everything you’d want to see in a film – violence, revenge and a hot Latina girlfriend.
Four Brothers is one crazy movie. Crazy good at times, crazy bad at times, crazy wild all the time.
All that's missing from Four Brothers' battery of macho clichés is a speedboat chase, a role for Carl Weathers and a villain with a pet cobra.
Ridiculously violent, crude, homophobic, brash and often plain absurd.
Add a script that teeters precariously between vengeance, poignancy and comedy, and Four Brothers starts to look like four movies.
This is not a glossy drama filled with pretty-looking people. Instead, it's a revenge-thriller and is one of the ugliest, nastiest movies in recent memory.
Despite random bursts of ambition, Four Brothers ultimately feels like a genre movie, only without as much satisfying payoff as we might like.
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