Undercover Brother
Review by Clint Morris
 Take
the novelty of 'Austin Powers', a medley of Motown classics,
a few stars not afraid to take the mickey out of themselves
and some really catastrophic fashion, and you have Undercover
Brother.
It's this year’s funkiest new comedy and a farce that,
for once, substitutes B-grade gags for thickset 12-inch conviviality.
With more groove than an LP, Undercover Brother (Eddie Griffin)
is the trendiest brother on the block.
Complete with thunderous flares and an out of control Afro,
he’s also the cat you need when the world’s about
to be taken over by hideous madmen.
Seems ‘The Man’, the shadowy bastard of all things
White, is planning to turn the presidential candidate (Billy
Dee Williams) into a laughing stock so with the help of ‘The
Brotherhood’ - a secret organisation of black people
dedicated to the overthrow black injustice - Undercover Brother
plans his own personal-style method of assail.
Equipped with all the information he’ll need to masquerade
as a country club stylin’ black-man, UB enters the enemies'
environment, determined to over-throw the enemy and save the
world from a white-man proscribed society.
After the sheer disappointment of the latest Austin Powers
film, it’s great to find a movie that promises what you’d
hope it’s poster image would perceive it to be –
a riotous laugh fest with enough set-dressing and witty gags
to make it well worth the price of admission.
Griffin is the best he’s been to date, creating one
of the screen’s funniest comedic gems in a long time,
the larger than life Undercover Brother and, coupled with
some fine supporting turns – former Doogie Howser
star Neil Patrick Harris among them – they all play a
big part in the film’s enjoyment factor.
Chris Kattan (A Night at the Roxbury) is especially
funny as ‘The Man's’ flunky, Mr.Feather, an especially
manic young rogue who, deep down, has a black-man-like soul,
just wanting to break out and dance it’s way across the
polished floor. And it does...
While a film like Undercover Brother could easily
have been a one-joke movie with a few silly lines and a great
marketing campaign behind it all, this film is the real deal
- an enormously funny, superbly well-written farce.
In comparison to the latest 'Austin Powers' flick –
this is the ‘Solid Gold’ – member.
3.5 out of 5
Undercover Brother
Australian release: Thursday February 13
Cast: Eddie Griffin, Aunjanue Ellis, Chris Kattan, Denise
Richards, Billy Dee Williams, Neil Patrick Harris.
Director: Malcolm D. Lee.
Website: Click
here
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