Four Brothers

Paramount pictures presents

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund, Sofi Vergara

Directed by: John Singleton

Rating: *****

Plot: Four adopted brothers return back home to Detroit when they hear the news that their mother has been killed in a grocery store robbery. The four decide to clean the streets themselves finding no trust in local police, but what they discover is it was much more than a random killing. Kick ass gun fights ensue.

Acting: Mark Wahlberg vanished for a little bit but I have always been amazed at his acting talent. Here he plays Danny a guy with a rough past but all he has is his brothers, to him it doesn't matter about skin color only your actions. His character is very much one to like because of his bad ass attitude and actions towards the bad guys. He breaks out of the "tough mother fucker" mode when serious shit goes down, and his emotions pour through, very good work by him. Tyrese Gibson who first appeared as an actor in Baby Boy and then in the horrible  2 Fast 2 Furious now in his third film, funny that those two were also made by Singleton, they must be buddies. Here Gibson plays a pure hard ass, whose only goal is revenge he is some of the more cool moments of punching people and shoot outs. Andre Benjamin who I've only seen before in the horrible Be Cool was alright here but nothing special same goes for Garrett Hedlund who had moments of greatness but his character was over shadowed by the first two leads. Together though this is a great cast these four men really did seem to care for each other and that was what was suppose to come through, and it did.

Directing/Writing: John Singleton just knows how to do action right, I really loved his version of Shaft several years ago and his earlier films are really good. Here he mixes old Western movie style with old school urban film making. The action here is smooth the action is not shaky or diluted like in most Hollywood pictures, like John Woo his action scenes are gritty and filled with style. Movies these days love the shaky cam effect to make the audience feel like they are fighting or running, if done right it's alright but mostly it is distracting. Singleton keeps the camera steady and the action has more of a punch to it. Also the movie allows us to feel each character get to know each one of them a little and I really enjoyed it. My only real complaint would be after their mom is killed she comes back to them in a ghost like flash back, this felt corny and actually slightly creepy and I think could have been dealt with better. Besides that the movie is almost perfect in my eyes. I also loved the soundtrack all these old beats mixed in with some soul music. This is a movie I wasn't expecting a lot from but I got more than enough to keep me happy.

Overall: Four Brothers is a personal favorite for me this summer. Where we have huge CGI filled movies or over the top comedies this action movie really hit the spot for me, because it wasn't mindless action it had it's place and it helped to story along. A really great surprise, this is really worth checking out.