John Singleton gets a slow burn going in his inner-city Western Four Brothers but then the movie fizzles into something generic and disappointing.
Four Brothers (2005)
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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
One can only wonder if Four Brothers would have gone from good to great if Singleton balanced the exit wounds with something more than skin deep.
The Mercer boys go from heartbroken to breaking heads in an instant and never look back or, heaven forbid, pause for a moment of character development.
Singleton fills the screen with moody darkness (but) Four Brothers falls apart completely in the last act.
There’s nothing terribly deep here, but we get caught up in the relationships among the brothers, and their intense loyalty to each other and the memory of their mother.
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.
Singleton, who has never managed to make a movie that didn’t fall completely apart, does Brothers a great favor by sticking so close to the lunacy.
An unremarkable, mediocre remake of John Wayne’s “The Sons of Katie Elder” without Wayne's charisma and with an ending that is not credible.
Lays on the thug-life testosterone with a trowel ... a marathon Grand Theft Auto session, without the redeeming hand-eye coordination development.
Four Brothers excels at following revenge-movie guidelines, and not much else. An above-average cast can't hide its B-movie pedigree.
[Four Brothers] is a vengeance-is-mine flick but one that is packed with drama, action and humor.
Mark Wahlberg delivers a cocky performance capped with hilarious put downs and gives the film its grounding as the clan's impetuous older brother
An unsavory and unsatisfying blend of bone-splintering sadism and doofus slapstick comedy.
Four Brothers is several movies in one slick, stressed vehicle, its hard-grinding gears meshing with infectious gusto and rough-and-tumble vigor.
[Four Brothers] connects with underlying moral currents in the way Westerns used to, back before greed, fear, anger and 'society' provided action movies with all the motivation they needed.
Call Four Brothers a guilty pleasure....Singleton may go for easy laughs, but he gets them; the gut-level jolts may be ridiculous, but he delivers them (with style).
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