Review of Four Brothers

Four Brothers is not even 3/10 of the film it calls itself. It was as if they had been saving all the energy - pre-production - to pack some serious wallop or to give a good beating, but during production instead settled down on simple punches and kicks that only do moderate damage. It was supposed to be an angry-revenge film, a no holds barred one, or at least that's the impression they wanted to give, but instead gave us rather unconvincing sympathetic scenes and unnecessary racist moments that had no intention of being there in the first place. The plot is devilishly simple, the characters are standard, generic, and in the first 20-or-so minutes we're under the impression it's gonna be unique, but are quickly betrayed of that thought once it passes the aforementioned mark.

Throughout the film I was rather confused: is it an action film? a drama? a harsh look at urban, gang life? a tragic film? I don't know what the original thought behind the film was but it tried to mix all of the above points... and failed. I mean it's a decently enough made film but I would liken it to Daikatana to others Mortal Kombat. It has the setting, the atmosphere, the characters, and the story of an angry film, but doesn't really have the heart - or soul - to call itself one. After when the film overstays its welcome, it quickly falls into the cliche pit that really disrupted the flow, and it only gets worse later.

The only redeeming qualities in the film were the performances of Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The former plays the main role of Bobby, the anti-hero of the film. Although it's not one of his best roles, it certainly was tough and rage-filled. The latter plays Victor Sweet, the main antagonist of the film, and one of the best acted villains in modern film history. Chiwetel bought an great distinction to his character that somehow managed to shy away from traditional villains and towards more unconventional, underrated ones. The character was somewhat fresh, but I believe he could've gone above the bar had the script been great. The rest was the cast were decent enough in their roles, the chemistry was believable, but almost everyone seemed too detached from himself and his surroundings. I think the main fault was under-development of the characters and lack of personality development.

In conclusion, Four Brothers is one of the least memorable films I've seen this year. It had potential of becoming a rock-steady, power-fist of a film, but instead became just a punch to the gut.

6.0/10