Four Brothers
Review by Zachary Keith Parker

Jeremiah (Outkast's Andre 3000), Jack (Hedlund), Bobby (Wahlberg), and Angel (Tyrese) in John Singleton's revenge flick, Four Brothers. Despite its good acting, it is never profound, only partly funny, and mostly disappointing.

    Add Singleton’s experience in explosive, though mostly empty, action flicks (2 Fast 2 Furious, Boyz n the Hood) with screenwriter David Elliot’s skill from the mistakenly humorous Nothing Sacred, and you have Four Brothers, an urban revenge flick as explosive—or at least, partial to drenching people with petrol—as its humorous protagonist, Bobby.

    Bobby, Jack (Garrett Hedlund), and Angel (Tyrese) come back to town after their elderly white mother, Evelyn Mercer is murdered in a suspicious robbery. Not just the only son to stay in town near his mother, but Jeremiah (Andre 3000) is also the only family man of the four brothers.

    The film begins, with various characters addressing the misfit Mercer family: Bobby and Jack are white, Angel and Jeremiah are black, but even so, there is no prejudice within their family. However, some cops, notably Lt. Green (Terrence Howard) do bear prejudice towards most of them, especially Bobby, for his past record of illegal cruelties. 

    Likewise, Bobby has no trust in the cops, at least, not in their ability to find his mom’s killers. Thus he leads his brothers (including a somewhat reluctant Jeremiah) to seek revenge, which induces a whole town gunfight. Bobby and his brothers have no conscience about murder or its consequences. They employ the most easily ruthless of means to deliver justice. 

    Unlike the outstanding urban drama, Changing Lanes, Singleton’s Four Brothers has no redeeming message as a revenge movie. It is as if the moral scruples of Evelyn Mercer, clearly demonstrated in the first ten minutes, disappear or at least, do not apply to her own sons.

    Consequently, since the good guys are essentially bad guys, Singleton has to make the bad guys even worse to secure the audience’s sympathy. He has to make them unpleasantly merciless bad guys who delight in degrading others. Thus the audience is subjected to hearing the villain speak his perverse desires repeatedly, even though we already get the point.

    Singleton avoids the most important point surrounding the violence of his characters: it will always continue. There are numerous accounts in the Bible, which show the horror and longevity of a blood feud. Only sacrifice and devotion to God release the participants of a blood feud. God established laws to protect citizens, but disregarding those God-ordained authorities always leads to worse consequences.

    In Four Brothers, the law is not only disregarded, but also portrayed as a corrupt and impotent system. Ultimately, Singleton’s message bears no redemption for any of its characters, despite its façade of moral principles.

    Similarly, Four Brothers does not even endeavor to maintain its outlook on racism throughout the movie. It sacrifices the subject, along with the importance of family to indulge teen-pleasing sexual jokes and action sequences. However, the unashamed rendering of its character’s offenses make it rather hard appreciate Four Brothers as anything more than another throwaway action flick.

    In conclusion, Four Brothers is a volatile exploitation of crime, which indeed treats “nothing sacred.” However, the clever dialogue and remarkably good acting offer some atypical popcorn entertainment. In particular, Mark Wahlberg gave a mostly impressive performance within the film (but you've seen the same performance before). Without him, forget chances, these Four Brothers are best left on the streets.