Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Film review

Blood brothers

Indiscriminate violence leaves Four Brothers with no good guys.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published August 11, 2005

	[Photo: Paramount Pictures
	From left, Andre Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund, Mark Wahlberg and Tyrese Gibson are the Four Brothers.

Street thugs always have excuses for breaking the law that seldom justify the damage they do. The same corrupted rationalization makes John Singleton's Four Brothers nothing more than a thug movie.

No matter what kind of nastiness occurs in Four Brothers, the "heroes" can always say they're doing it for their foster mother, a kindly woman gunned down during a grocery store robbery. Whether that justifies torture, indiscriminate shootouts, burglary, reckless car chases and extreme vandalism becomes an ethics test that only other criminals could fail. Singleton made his name with Boyz N the Hood, a movie condemning street violence. Now he glorifies it, turning theaters into Roman coliseums where viewers are urged to turn thumbs down to almost everyone.

What does Mom say about all this? Nothing, although in a jaw-dropping scene, Singleton brings her back from the dead to give advice about dinner table manners. If this movie had a shred of conscience, Mom would get into her boys' heads at least once while they're wreaking havoc on Detroit. There aren't consequences in Four Brothers except someone whom we like dying messy, paving the way for more vigilante injustice.

Mark Wahlberg leads the posse as Bobby Mercer, a roughneck with a vague criminal past conveniently hinted at by a detective (Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow) staking out Ma Mercer's wake. The policeman also points out hulking Angel (Tyrese Gibson), slick Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin, nee Andre 3000 of Outkast) and comparatively timid Jack (Garrett Hedlund) to his partner. The men were unwanted foster children taken in by Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan), the neighborhood saint.

Now she's dead, and it doesn't take long for the Mercer boys to start strong-arming possible witnesses. Screenwriters David Elliot and Paul Lovett steer the minor mystery in several directions, with suspects dropping out of contention as fast as they arise. Eventually, the trail is so convoluted that it's senseless; the villain behind everything had relatively nothing to gain by the woman's death, and the way he's punished knits a lot of loopholes.

But logic is a minor concern with a movie this amoral, cloaked in so much questionable justification. The action scenes are exciting enough, and the brothers swap juicy smack talk between battles. It's when the smoke clears that Singleton's misguided principles seep through. We're supposed to cheer these vigilantes - many in a preview audience did, making me squirm - without considering exactly what they're doing in this sweet woman's name. It's a depressing situation, overall.

Four Brothers has been touted as a remake of The Sons of Katie Elder, a 1965 Western starring John Wayne and Dean Martin. But their vengeance wasn't arbitrary, or unjust, as the script defined their mother's murder. Movies like that, Death Wish and the original Walking Tall pit decent folks against bad ones, so we felt a bit better about the rough stuff. Four Brothers expects that comfort level no matter what happens. That sound you hear is Katie Elder spinning in her grave.

Grade: C-

Director: John Singleton

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund, Terrence Howard, Josh Charles, Sofia Vergara, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Fionnula Flanagan

Screenplay: David Elliot, Paul Lovett

Rating: R; strong violence, harsh profanity, sexual content

Running time: 106 min.

[Last modified August 10, 2005, 13:50:09]