Four Brothers

I caught Four Brothers the other week, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, I wasn't expecting too much having seen the trailer, but I love revenge flicks, so thought I'd give this one the once over. I'm glad I did.

The premise is simple - the mother of four adopted boys is murdered in a rough part of town. The mother is basically a saint, taking on these four volatile youngsters when nobody else would touch them. Anyway, the boys are now men, and upon hearing of the murder, they all drift back into town looking for vengeance.

The brothers are played by Mark Whalberg, Andre 3000, Tyrese Gibson and Garrett Hedlund. All four of the Mercer Brothers are far from reformed characters but if it wasn't for good old Mrs Mercer, they'd probably be dead already. The great thing about the Mercer quartet is the chemistry between them, when they're clowning around in the family home, they genuinely seem to be having a good time, they actually seem like a family and this comraderie really transpires through to the audience.

This unaplogetically violent film really gets going when the brothers go looking for retribution as they set out to find out why the family matriach was gunned down. Mark Whalberg is ace as Bobby Mercer, he's the baddest apple in the Mercer barrell and goes around raising hell, interrupting basketball games, raiding night clubs and generally beating the living snot out of anyone who gets in his way.

The plot is formulaic as the Brothers Mercer lay the smack down on anyone who gets in their way.

There are superb scenes in this film, including a cracking car chase (and I usually hate car chases), and a wild west style shoot-out towards the end. On top of this there are also some nice plot twists and surprises in the storyline that one might not have expected.

Other notable performances come from Chiwetel Ejiofor who plays over the top hood Victor Sweet and Terrence Howard who is one of the cops investigating the case.

Overall a splendid little film, with some nice twists and characters that elevate well above your standard revenge thriller.

These delinquent, outcast brothers (Four Brothers) come home for the funeral of their adoptive mother, who they find out was purposely murdered and not just a victim of "the wrong place at the wrong time". These guys are like already tough street thugs. So to find this out, truly sends them into a rampage. The ring leader, older brother Mark Wahlberg, heads the group in the search for the killer/who ordered the killing. I felt that this film was true to each brother's characters. There's the "never-going-to-be anything-but-a-thug" in Mark Wahlberg, the tough military Don Juan in Tyrese, the sensible family man in Andre, and the other guy - the sensitive younger brother that bears the brunt of every ones teasing.

I felt that it was well written, it didn't leave doubts in the viewer, and kept you very interested. One of the best action movies this year.