These Are My Brothers (Four Brothers (DVD))

Member Name: Brown_eyes1984

Product:	Four Brothers (DVD)
Date:	30/04/06 (162 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: plenty of humour, a good watchable film

Disadvantages: none

From the director that brought us ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’, ‘Shaft’ and ‘Boyz n the hood’, Four Brothers is the story of four brothers (unsurprisingly) out to avenge their mother’s death. Released in 2005 this film promises action, revenge and surprisingly plenty of humour.

*** My Opinion On ***

Here you will find my opinion on everything from the way the movie was filmed to how action packed it was and the enjoyability of the film compared to John Singleton’s previous works. Hopefully this will give you the best idea of what the film was like!

1) The Story

I thought the story was quite good in this, a little simple maybe but still a good story all the same. It has the hard man image with the brothers all out to get revenge on their mother’s killer but then there is the quick witted humour that makes this film enjoyable to watch for both sexes. What added a little bit of a difference to the story was that the brothers aren’t blood related. They are all misfits who were brought up by the same woman who adopted them. Two are white men and the other two are black which tends to confuse people throughout the film when they say they are brothers.

There are also little subplots which make the film a little more interesting which I won’t give away because it could spoil the film for some people.

All in all I’d say even though this wasn’t as original as it could have perhaps been it was still fairly solid and I didn’t notice any gaps in the plot or anything like that.

2) Character Performances

** Main Characters **

> Bobby Mercer played by Mark Wahlberg

> Angel Mercer played by Tyrese Gibson

> Jeremiah Mercer played by Andre Benjamin

> Jack Mercer played by Garrett Hedlund



I was surprised to learn that one of the main characters roles (Bobby) was first offered to a few A-list actors before Mark Wahlberg got the part. Apparently they turned it down due to the script being ultra violent. To be honest I couldn’t really imagine anybody else playing the character other than Mark Wahlberg as he was so convincing and in a way lovable in his character. I simply cannot imagine anyone else doing as well as he did.

So obviously I was impressed with Marks performance but was his performance really as good as his performance in other films he’s starred in? Well he has starred in films such as ‘Planet of the Apes’, ‘The Truth about Charlie’ and the pretty recent film ‘I Heart Huckabees’. The only film I have seen out of those is Planet of the Apes and I have to admit I thought he gave a pretty good performance in that too but for me his performance in this just tips it. As an actor he is very believable within his roles and here he captured Bobby Mercer perfectly. Rough around the edges, quick witted, cocky and yet undeniably handsome. As I said no one else could have played Bobby better for me.

Tyrese Gibson played the part of Angel Mercer possibly the softest of the brothers. Tall and well built I expected him to be one of the toughest but it wasn’t like that at all. Tyrese has starred in other films such as ‘Flight of the Phoenix’, ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ and he is also rumoured to be starring in the future film which is due out in 2007 ‘The Transformers: The Movie’. After starring in ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ John Singleton obviously liked him enough to put him in this film too. I saw 2 Fast 2 Furious and I liked his performance in that too. Obviously it’s a completely different role here but he still gives a believable and decent performance. One thing I will say about his role though is I thought maybe it could have been a little stronger. He had a little sub plot going on but it wasn’t anything strong and I feel it could have perhaps been a little better. He still had good chemistry with the other brothers though but he was the person throughout the film that I could least relate to.

Jeremiah Mercer is a little sneaky. He comes across decent and honest, taking his daughter to gymnastics and taking care of his wife but there is always something about him that isn’t quite right. Andre hasn’t really starred in much before this film but some of his roles include him starring in ‘Revolver’ and the smash hit ‘Be Cool’. Having only seen him in this role I did think he did a pretty good job. He was believable and his chemistry with the other brothers was good. He also really shone as a father and showed that he could play both a responsible and a tough guy image.

Finally Garrett Hedlund played the part of Jack Mercer, the youngest brother who is a little strange but lovable in a way. He is always getting a lot of stick from the other brothers especially Bobby. He isn’t entirely sure about violence but he is willing to protect his brothers no matter what. Garrett hasn’t starred in much but he has starred in the hit film ‘Troy’ and another film called ‘Friday Night Live’. I’d say his performance in this was really strong. He gave me a really big feel for the character and he made the role his. Having not starred in a lot I am really impressed with his performance and will definitely be looking out for his future films.

All in all I’d say the character performances were really good, Mark and Garrett gave the best performances but that could be down to how the script was written and nothing to do with their acting abilities in general. I thought the chemistry between them all was really good and they were just great to watch.

3) The Violence

I know the violence was something I was worried about before I watched this. I’m not really into ultra, pointless, violent movies and from the cover of the DVD and the sound of the story, I just knew that I was going to be in for a rough ride with this one. However that really wasn’t the case and I don’t know how those A-List stars could have said the script was ultra violent unless they actually tamed it down afterwards!

Obviously there was some violence in the film with people getting shot etc but it didn’t actually show too much. There wasn’t that much blood and the only gory scene that I remember is seeing some guys leg broken with the bone sticking out (really not nice!), but apart from that it was all a little tame just the way I like it. Obviously this isn’t great news for fans of hardcore violence but to me it makes it more watchable for both sexes. The mixture of violence and humour balanced it out to make a good quality movie.

4) The Humour

The humour within the film really did throw me and to be honest without it the film might have been a complete waste of time and a little boring. Most of the funny lines came from the character of Bobby and in parts they made both me and my boyfriend laugh out loud. I would recommend this film on the humour alone!

5) DVD Features

There are a few extras on the DVD including:

* Director Commentary
* Behind The Scenes
* Crafting Four Brothers
* Deleted Scenes

As usual with deleted scenes I can see why they were deleted but it was still entertaining watching what may have made it into the film.

Crafting Four Brothers is a section which may be of interest to up and coming writers who want to write scripts as the scriptwriters for the film reveal how they put everything together and made it work.

The commentary was pretty interesting too and described why things were done a certain way.

All in all I would recommend watching the extras, they passed a little time and I found out some interesting facts.

6) Price, Availability and Certificate

This film is Certified 15 and can be found in supermarkets like Asda for just £12.97 or Tesco for the same price. Alternatively you can buy it in the high street at places such as Woolworths for £15.99 or WH Smiths for £19.99.

As you can see above the prices do vary wherever you decide to buy from so it is always best to shop around. You should be able to find this at a shop near you as with it being a recent film it is stocked in most places.

*** My Overall Opinion ***

I really didn’t expect to like this and I had owned it for quite a while before I decided to watch it. However I really am glad that I did. It had a good twist near the end and it never lost focus of its main plot. It wasn’t overly violent and it had plenty of humour and one liner in it that made it really enjoyable to watch. Character performances were good and I would recommend it to everyone over the age of 15. It does have quite a bit of bad language in but then I don’t think you can expect anything else of a film of this genre. Effects wise there wasn’t really any special effects within tthe film which I felt made it a lot more real and easier to watch. If you haven’t yet seen it I would recommend at least renting it out.

Summary: an entertaining, decent film that I would easily recommend to anyone over 15