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Four Brothers
R3 - Hong Kong - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (12th June 2006). |
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The Film
 John Singleton blasted onto the scene with the powerful Boys n The Hood in 1991, this was among the first films to deal with the gang situation facing young black youth in America. It dealt with the problems directly, honestly and unsparingly, the result was a breakout film that’s earned its spot as one of the most important contemporary films made. It made its way onto the National Film Registry, at the Library of Congress. The critical and audience success of that film led the way for other similarly themed films such as Menace II Society (1993) and Fresh (1994) being two of the better ones. Singleton became the youngest ever director (24 years old) to be nominated for an Academy Award for his work on that film, and the momentum Boys n The Hood created would have been enough to launch a brilliant career, however something went somewhat awry. Singleton hasn’t had a brilliant career; he’s had an okay one and made some forgettable films along the way. 1993’s Poetic Justice made minor waves, earning good bank at the box office but was nothing special, 1995’s Higher Learning garnered mixed reviews and Rosewood (1997) nobody saw. He made the move to bigger budget summer fare with the much anticipated Shaft (2000), although business was drummed up due to savvy marketing (including a McFarlane action figure) and Samuel L. Jackson (The badest mother fucker around) in the lead role helped the otherwise lackluster reception it received from critics and movie goers (after the first week, the numbers dropped dramatically by around 40%). Baby Boy (2001) was much of the same old urban drama we’d seen before and just to try out something new came 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious the sequel to the popular The Fast and the Furious (2001), a franchise that makes boy racers cream themselves, as these films included enough hot-car street racing and hot ladies strutting around in next to nothing to fill a stadium. The formula works and the horny, testosterone-filled wanna-be custom car driving petrol heads came in droves. But despite the enormous box office these films were s**t, especially the second one. Had Singleton lost his touch? I think so, in 1991 he showed much promise, now I’m not so sure. And Four Brothers is yet another in a line of average movies that pollute the theater screens and rental shelves, that in time will never be spoken of again. Four Brothers tells the story of four adopted brothers, Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Angel (Tyrese Gibson), Jack (Garrett Hedlund) and Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin). All of which were delinquent children that no one would take in, until they met Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan). The boys have returned home to bury their mother, who was shot at a convenience store by armed thugs, the random armed robbery turns out to be something else entirely and the boys discover their mother was murdered. The brothers decide to take action themselves and exact revenge on whomever it was behind the murder. But two cops Lt. Green (Terrence Howard) and Detective Fowler (Josh Charles), their own suspicions, a crooked councilman (Barry Shabaka Henley) and a local hoodlum, Victor Sweet (Chiwetel Ejiofor) get in their way. Having sat through this movie several times I can honestly say it was enjoyable, however several things about annoyed me more than the overall enjoyment factor. First of all, Singleton asks a lot from his audience to suspend more disbelief than they care to in the first place. One scene in particular, the Mercer house shootout, although exciting, it seemed as if no one else lived in this neighborhood because no one seemed to give a s**t that several people are having an intense gun battle. The streets are dead quite, not even a single cop or siren is heard for the entirety of this scene! And this should be a huge sore point considering these four brothers have such bad histories that the two cops supposedly following them seem to conveniently not be around when this epic gun battle takes place. Sorry Singleton, this is too much of an oversight to simply not mention. Another key scene that plays out tragically is a dinner scene were the boys each remember their mum and see a vision of her at the dinner table, I understand the relevance of this scene and why it exists, but this is far to cheese-filled to take seriously. If you want to throw us into an urban-western-revenge-film that is supposed to be taken seriously then why on earth would you shoot a scene that feels so out of place and unintentionally funny in a bad way? I’m sure there could have been a better way to show that they miss their mother, um - wasn’t the fact that they needed to exact revenge enough of an indication that they really love her/missed her? I’m sick and tired of filmmakers treating the audience like they're stupid and this scene really feels like I’m being spoon-fed. These points aside, I thought the overall chemistry between the brothers was well executed, which really helps sell the fact that they really are a family. Wahlberg’s performance although not exactly inspiring is probably his better one to date (Lets face it, he hasn’t really delivered an earth-shattering performance since 1997’s boogie Nights), Tyrese continues to play –well -Tyrese, Benjamin proves yet again that he should be taken seriously as an actor (he was the only good thing about last year’s Be Cool) and Hedlund manages to find a way to stand out among the rest of the talent and for a relative newcomer that’s an achievement on its own. One aspect of this film that I loved was the style, Singleton is a self-confessed western fan, and if Sergio Leone was still alive today, he’d have shot it the same way. The framing is wide and expansive, the camera moves are slick and the color and tone is gritty and unwashed. It’s clear a large portion of pre-production was set aside for this aspect of the film, it’s a shame they couldn’t iron out those story problems detailed above. I really wanted to love this film, but in the end I only just liked it. Four Brothers had so much potential but it was not only thrown away, it also manages to slap the audience in the face while they’re at it, this is never a good idea.
Video
This film is presented in its original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 this anamorphic transfer is solid to say the least. The image is sharp and crystal clear, the colors are suitably washed out to reflect the director’s vision. Skin tones are well rendered, blacks are deep and shadow detail is consistent. I could not spot any major flaws in this print; there were no compression artefacts that I could visibly see and no edge-enhancement. For a recent film this transfer is clean and near perfect as one should come to expect.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included on this DVD, and English Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as a Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its English soundtrack. I found the dialogue to be clear and distortion free, the soundtrack is very active especially during the action scenes, the shootout being the most memorable. The bullet sounds wiz by from speaker to speaker, additionally scenes that were not action set pieces also had a appropriate amount of atmospheric surrounds such as wind and rain/snow that provided a sense of depth. The music was equally impressive and mixed well within the 5.1 sound space and never felt out of place. This is a fine track and the only improvement I can make is perhaps one day releasing this film with a DTS ES track. Optional subtitles are also included in Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, English, Korean and Thai.
Extras
First up is the feature-length audio commentary by the film’s director John Singleton. In this screen-specific track, Singleton comments on how each scene was set-up, the shot selection chosen to tell the story as well as music, character development and motivations. He talks occasionally about his cast and why each actor was chosen for the role and provides some interesting behind-the-scenes trivia such as when certain scenes were shot and any problems the cast and crew may have faced during filming, especially in the wintry environment of Toronto (the shooting location, which doubled for Detroit). Furthermore Singleton also talks about his Western movie influences and how that translated to making this film. The track was rather enjoyable and moved at a steady pace, it was never boring and provides the viewer with some interesting insights into the making of this film. The first of four featurettes is entitled The Look of Four Brothers and runs for 10 minutes 4 seconds. This clip takes a closer look at the photography of the film and the aim to create an urban western’ in the shot selection and framing as well as the lighting and overall look and feel of the film. The clip also looks at the locations, the sets built for the production as well as costuming the actors while still keeping their look different and unique to their personality. The second featurette is entitled Crafting Four Brothers and runs for 10 minutes 54 seconds. This clip focuses on the writing of the script. The possibilities provided by the revenge’ genre, which meets urban western, a motif repeated a lot in these featurettes. The screenwriters talk about character development, brotherly bond, and also discuss the merits of key scenes in the film among other things. Behind The Brotherhood is the third featurette and runs for 9 minutes 29 seconds and takes a closer look at the involvement of Singleton as director and what originally interested him in this project as well as the casting the four main leads, and what each actor managed to bring to their characters that made them so memorable. The final featurette entitled Mercer House Shootout runs for 4 minutes 15 seconds and is a behind-the-scenes look at how that scene came together, from conception to completion. We get a look at the storyboards and creating a rhythm for how the scene plays out, the elements required to pull it off that includes bullet hits, how the scene was shot including camera techniques and stunt work among other things. Following that is a collection of nine deleted scenes, which can be viewed individually or with a play all function. Unfortunately these scenes do not include any audio commentary telling us why these were cut out, although one can assume mainly for time. Despite this, it would still be nice to hear from the director regarding these scenes. The scenes are: - Corner Store Hold-up runs for 1 minute 5 seconds and is an extended scene where Mrs. Mercer gets gunned down in the shop. - The Brother’s Eulogy runs for 3 minutes 47 seconds, the brothers eulogies their mother at the funeral, Jack breaks down and Bobby goes up to give his 2 cents worth. - Bobby Teases Jack runs for 1 minute 27 seconds, Bobby teases Jack about begin a homosexual, while Jack is setting the table for dinner. - After The Hockey Game runs for 15 seconds, in this short clip Jeremiah reminds Angel of dealing with important business. - Arriving at Jeremiah’s runs for 38 seconds and is a short clip of the brothers interacting before checking out the premises for Jeremiah’s proposed business. - Revenge is a Full-time Job runs for 1 minute 27 seconds, Angle reminds Jack that revenge is a full-time job when two homeless people show up on Mrs. Mercer’s doorstep. - Lt. Green Questions Councilman Douglas runs for 1 minute 42 seconds, Green asks if he knows Mrs. Mercer well and why he stopped funding her son’s project. - Detective Fowler Warns Angel runs for 25 seconds, Fowler tells Angle what becomes of cop killers. - Cops Arrest Angel runs for 32 seconds, after he holds up Fowler the cops arrest him and escort him into the cop car. Rounding out the extras is the film’s original theatrical trailer which runs for 2 minutes 27 seconds.
Overall
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