Four Brothers

Four multi-racial brothers return to their Detroit hood in order to figure out what happened to their loving, adoptive mother, who was shot down in a grocery story robbery. Was the whole thing a set-up to whack their moms? Was she just an innocent bystander who got shot by mistake? Did Donnie Wahlberg set the whole thing up because he lost the lead role in this film to his shorter brother? Find out below!!

I like “winter time” movies, especially when they’re based in an urban setting with guns and violence mixed in for kicks. I don’t know why…I just do! That’s why I was stoked to see what FOUR BROTHERS had under its X-Mas hat, as I sat to watch it during yet another dreary start to our Canadian winter. I liked the film’s first act, which consisted of lots of snow and character development, I enjoyed its second act, which started to get into the nitty-gritty of its revenge plot, but I only tolerated its final act, which wasn’t as good as it could have been, with some over-the-top sequences taking me out of the film, and its denouement, well, closing things up, but not in any sort of powerful way. In fact, the film’s final mano-a-mano was probably its most disappointing, with a “twist” of sorts not really working for me. That said, it isn’t exactly the film’s plotline that kept me most entertained throughout, as its 4 lead actors and their corresponding characters, worked for me and kept me tuned in all the way. Wahlberg with his typical badass Boston attitude did what he needed to do, Tyrese brought his regular dose of charm to his character and Andre Benjamin worked as the more serious-minded brother in this funky bunch. The fourth brother, played by Garrett Hedlund, was probably the least interesting, but then again, fourth brothers usually are (I have no idea what means).

Add to that, a pretty fun bad guy played with zeal by Chiwetel Ejiofor (you just love to hate this guy), a hot-looking yet extremely annoying Sofia Vergara, plenty of cool 70s tunes and direction by John Singleton, and the film is at its very least, an entertaining way to pass an hour and forty-five minutes on a lazy, winter Saturday night. The film also earns its R-rating with plenty of “real-life” dialogue (“Man, I can drink you under the table” / “Maybe…but we’re not talking about sperm right now.”), nut-busting by all involved, and a nice heap of violence and murders all around. Things definitely go a little kooky near the end, as a machine gun fight in the middle of a Detroit suburb makes you wonder where the fuck the cops are in this town, but I let shit like that go, as I knew that I was only watching a movie, and on the whole, things were “pretty believable” – at least enough for me not to give a shit about the truth and to enjoy the Wahlbergs, the Benjamins and the Tyreses as they charmed the pants off me. Which brings me to the film’s greatest attribute and that being the relationships built among the brothers, as well as the screen chemistry that I felt while watching these 2 black and 2 white “brothers” act like they were family. If my family was half as loving and loyal as these clowns, I’d pick up an uzi and pump some cold lead into skeezy hockey-mask-wearing bad guys as well. Peace!

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian