Four Brothers

Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000 of rap supergroup Outkast) and Grant Hedlund play (somewhat) grownup brothers adopted as hellraising kids by neighborhood saint Fionnula Flanagan; the movie opens with Flanagan being gunned down in a grocery store robbery and the four coming together in the nasty Detroit ghetto where she lived for her funeral. And revenge.

Since Four Brothers is directed by John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood, the Tupac/Janet Jackson flick Poetic Justice, the Shaft remake and 2 Fast 2 Furious) you’re probably not surprised that Gibson and Benjamin have grown up marginally more civilized than Wahlberg and Hedlund. But Singleton is not a one dimensional filmmaker and all four of them are at least moderately complex, filled with shades of grey, as is the movie as a whole.

While we may not be the most sophisticated of viewers, I’m always glad when my wife gives a similar positive response to the more gritty kind of films we see together, which she did in this case. Casting Chiwetal Ejiofor(Kinky Boots, Serenity, Love, Actually, Dirty Pretty Things), very good as the nutso mob boss behind most of the family’s troubles,  certainly adds a point to her rating. Terrance Howard (who was better in Crash, though this is the better movie) is perhaps a bit too calm as childhood pal turned determined cop, Josh Charles (Sports Night) is good as a rotten cop and Sofia Vergara (Chasing Papi) has no problem playing Gibson’s, er, erratic girlfriend.
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