Four Brothers (2005)

With an eye popping cast of talent you get a bowl full of cheese, replete with what are surreal, hard to believe moments of laugh out loud unintentionally painfully funny dialog and flashbacks of characters ready to wink back at the audience. In short, four adopted bad reputation brothers come back to their childhood home to mourn the death of their mother in a robbery, but later appears that it might have been the result of foul play.I knew this was headed for trouble when the film had a soap-opera like appearance. Four adopted brothers talk about their momsy moms in a bizarre, unrealistic and painfully funny fashion. There are no rules on what appears the entire time to be an isolated staged set. Did they run out of money for extras? It looked like a staged show you'd see on Broadway. Streets with no people, car chases with no one else on the road, outdoor scenes with no one in the vicinity except for "the local kids" who have a speaking part. It's bizarre.Nothing in this film makes much sense. Don't believe the highly rated reviews. They are either paid shills or have painfully low expectations. I happen to like a good number of Wahlberg's films, think Andre 3000 is a fantastic talent and the villain is an Oscar winning actor and major talent. It's all wasted on a script that is so poorly written that you must blame the writers, director and these guys' agent for doing this rubbish. This has to be a payback film for something.The explanation as to why the events in this film took place are loose - at best. They include every cliche in the book, good cop bad cop, hot blooded latina girlfriend,, a Wahlberg who can pull out his gun seemingly at every turn and somehow NEVER gets reported to the police or seriously threatened by anyone else in what is supposed to be a rough Detroit neighborhood. To say this movie was unrealistic is an understatement. It really looks, feels and acts like a stage play.Flashbacks of scenes with moms are painfully funny. All these tough guys reduced to tears, visions of moms moms. I don't know who drew it up on paper but it had us rolling with laughter each time they pulled that sideshow. And it goes through the entire movie in such a fashion. I won't ruin the ending for you but will say that, it too, has the kind of Hollywood ending where you just have to laugh at how poorly and beyond loose it is. What occurs could only happen in a movie because it was written that way. The movement of characters is also painfully choreographed. Nothing feels natural because it isn't. This is one of the most painful wastes of an excellent cast I've seen. Don't say you weren't warned that this is nowhere near the inflated 7 star rating this film has at the moment. So disappointed.

Four Brothers is all about thugs to be perfectly honest. If you like gangster movies then I guess you'll like this okay, personally I was really annoyed with it a lot of times. I like movies where I can really pull for the protagonist and where I don't feel badly towards them, and I really couldn't do that in this movie, I mean yes there were many times where I felt horrible for them and I wanted them to win, but at the same time they were jerks a lot of the time and all the locker room tough guy junk got on my nerves and it got really old after a while. The casting was good for the kind of rolls these men played, especially Mark Wahlberg since he really was a thug in real life and plays characters with that kind of attitude many times. The acting isn't really bad it's certainly not great by any means, but i wouldn't say it's poor, my thing was just that the male characters annoyed me with their crap a lot throughout the film. There are a few touching moments about them trying to find their mothers killer and there are some memories of their mother that are nice to see, but those times come pretty far and few in between. I got bored with the film sometimes and wanted it to move along. Overall I don't really suggest this film, there are better ones that are more worthy of your time. 5/10.

A Movie of Many Tones from Extreme Emotionalism to Visceral Outbursts of Street Level Violence, this Band of Brothers are a Racial and Sexual Orientation Mix of Odd Fellows in Detroit's Dead End Community of Working Class Misfits and Perpetually Falling Snow.Obviously, this has a Cold Feel to it Despite the Many inclusions of Family and Brotherly Love. There are some Missteps like the Basketball Game that comes off as Ludicrous. The Acting is Fine but the Latino Female Character and Her Constant Loud Mouth Yelling and Confrontations with the Brother are Grating and Over the Top.The Revenge Element is Handled with Reckless Abandon that Sometimes Works just Fine, Like the Scene in the Project with Attack Dogs and an Escape Attempt that is Bone Crushing. The Car Chase is Refreshingly Different, but Sometimes the Gun Wielding Swagger can be a Bit too Much to Take.Director John Singleton Seems to be on His Game here and is at Home with the Homeys. Mark Wahlberg doesn't Mumble Much but the Marbles in the Mouth are Evident in a Couple of Scenes. The Movie is an Above Average Character Study with Plenty of Action and a Goodly Amount of Thought.Overall a Winner for the Director and Wahlberg, but the Overrated Terrence Howard got most of the Awards and Critical Attention as a Cop with Connections to the Family. A Picture with a lot More Pathos than Most Movies of This Type. Uneven but Gritty and Violent Enough to Satisfy its Goal as a Deep Discussion on Environment and Noble Intentions Buried in a Storm of Chilling Reality.

This movie was a big surprise for me. Sure the main central plot is about revenge - which the movie delivers on big time. But the big surprise was how the movie explores the relationships within this family of four brothers and their mother. I come from a large family and it rang very true for me. The humour, the ragging, the arguments but when push comes to shove - coming together. When family knocks on the door, you have to let them in.I found the location, character portrayal and violence very gritty and realistic. There is no over-idealisation of life, and yet plenty of humour there too.I found it a very satisfying mix of human and revenge, with revenge being the very good icing on a great cake.