More Movies -- "Four Brothers"

She Who Shall Not Be Named wanted to see “Four Brothers.” Apparently she still thinks after all these years that Marky Mark is cute. I was dubious. I’d seen other John Singleton films, and I was definitely not impressed by the inclusion of a rap “artist” in the cast [they seem to have as much much skill as actors as the average Saturday Night Live alumnus]. We were both wrong.

Whatever he is, Marky is not cute. In this film he plays a sleazy and dissolute common criminal and looks the part. So she was disappointed. And as for me, I was pleasantly surprised. This film is a cut above Singleton’s earlier efforts.

That doesn’t mean, of course that it is a good film. It’s a standard violent revenge plot. It captures the ambience of Detroit’s means streets quite well. The cinematography is passable. The characters are shallow and laughable. The acting varies from competent to ridiculous. There is a lot of boom boom, screeching breaks and squealing tires, and go-go pacing. There are macho confrontations, a nasty, over-the-top villain, and of course a trite narrative with a predictable showdown ending. In short, it’s a Singleton film.

What impressed, though, was the interaction among the main characters. These guys work well together and have an easy and natural bantering style that works well. Singleton seems to be making a point here that at the lowest levels of society [the one these characters inhabit] racial differences don’t, or shouldn’t, mean much. Beyond this crude Marxist message, though, this film doesn’t have much to say. But that’s all right. It’s a tolerable, mindless, summer action flick. Mildly amusing and not too offensive.

More later....