Four Brothers

Review by Clint Morris

A band of renegades are out to avenge the death of their custodian. Along the way, they lose members of their pack, and ostensibly attract more enemies by the day.

In a 'nowhere to run' bookend, the gang are holed up in a battered old home, delimited by the enemy.

Hmmm… The only thing missing from Mark Wahlberg's latest movie seems to be the enduring words, "Rape it Murphy," right?

Yet, as much of a rip-off of Christopher Cain's Young Guns (1988) Four Brothers may be, it sings to a different tune: it's set in the present day, it's also set in the hood, and roles for minorities? Let's just say this one would have the ghost of Dr King haunting Cain for years after viewing the comparison.

Still, Wahlberg's not new to taking a photocopy of other peoples work and using it for his own, is he? His only hit record? 'Good Vibrations'. His past hit films? Planet of the Apes, The Italian Job, and The Truth About Charlie (a remake of Charade) to name but a couple.

Oh, and that bonus track he sings on the 'Boogie Nights' soundtrack? It's the theme from Transformers: The Movie.

Yep, the chap likes to scrounge through recyclables more than the provincial trash collector. Yet as long as his iniquitous Y-fronts don't come used (ewww), and as long as he continues fronting such a fine cover band, bring it on.

Four Brothers is probably the weakest single on the Wahlberg cover album. Though Wahlberg and co-stars Tyrese Gibson and André Benjamin (aka André 3000 from band 'Outkast') give good performances, the script just isn't brick-solid enough to smash through any barriers.

Reportedly inspired by Henry Hathaway's The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), the film centres on four adopted brothers - two black, two white - who reunite at the death of their adopted mother. She was shot dead in a convenience store, and they're determined to find out by whom.

Things get more complicated when the boys get hold of a security tape from the store. Seems the woman wasn't just in "the wrong place, at the wrong time" but mercilessly murdered. There was a reason for her execution after all.

With the pedal on the metal, their guns in their holsters and their fists ready to swing - the boys set out to unearth some answers.

While John Singleton's Boyz N'The Hood (1991) worked as both a model of logic and edifying commentary, his Four Brothers doesn't. It's simply in it for the bang.

There was always a corollary to someone's actions in the former - one of the best movies about life in tumultuous South Central - but in this one, everyone's seemingly got free reign to scatter bullets across Chicago streets, killing a man is a yawn and a wrap across the knuckles is the most you'll get from the coppers who think you've just buried a neighbouring gang. In Hood, every body counted, every action mattered.

Still, it's good to see Singleton - slumming it in Hollywood rubbish like 2 Fast, 2 Furious of late - returning to his roots. He just needs to lose the Hollywood exec sitting on his shoulder.

Without actors like Wahlberg and rising star Terrence Howard, who plays a cop, Four Brothers might be about as tasty as week-old spaghetti. But since they are in it, enjoy it for what it is, pour on the cheese, and shovel it in by the spoonful. It may get cold rather quickly.

3 out of 5

Four Brothers
Australian release: Thursday the 10th of November, 2005
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund, Terrence Howard, Josh Charles, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Fionnula Flanagan.
Director: John Singleton.
Website: Click here.

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