raidernation-20472 This movie has everything from the heart-wrenching sad beginning to the non stop pounding action one of the best revenge movies ever four Sons come home to avenge the death of their mother with a great cast Mark Wahlberg Tyrese Gibson Garrett hedlund Terrence Howard

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Four Brothers" is a 108-minute movie from 10 years ago that was written by David Elliot and Paul Lovett, bot not really that prolific, but they did a good job here. Same can be said about director James Singleton, only that he has made films for many years, also at this point already and scored 2 Oscar nominations for Boyz n the Hood back in the early 90s. And just like in that one, the cast in this film is predominantly black as well. However, there are exception such as Mark Wahlberg who plays the main character and the very young, truly unknown Garret Hedlund. Also in it are Tyrese Gibson, Chiwetel Ejiofor and André Benjamin. The latter is singer from the pretty great band Outkast. He certainly held his own very well here against all these professional actors, which is especially impressive as his character is actually one of the biggest and most significant of the movie.The plot is as follows: An old lady gets killed during a store robbery and her 4 sons are out for revenge. They run into good and bad cops and the main antagonist who is surrounded by many henchmen and contract killers. Oh yeah i forgot to mention Terrence Howard and Josh Charles ("The Good Wife") earlier. They also play their parts very well. Do not look for realism or real greatness in this movie. It's a nice revenge tale, but it's not too realistic. Still this wasn't a problem for me as it was mostly a fun watch with nice character elaborations and an interesting story. The ending may be a bit too over the top in terms of how everything looked bad for the title characters, but they manage apparently easily to get out of this mess. Really solid watch and I recommend this movie. Quite a lot of talent in here and that does not only include the cast. thumbs up.

adrien-jb This movie was a big surprise for me. Sure the main central plot is about revenge - which the movie delivers on big time. But the big surprise was how the movie explores the relationships within this family of four brothers and their mother. I come from a large family and it rang very true for me. The humour, the ragging, the arguments but when push comes to shove - coming together. When family knocks on the door, you have to let them in.I found the location, character portrayal and violence very gritty and realistic. There is no over-idealisation of life, and yet plenty of humour there too.I found it a very satisfying mix of human and revenge, with revenge being the very good icing on a great cake.

Andy Steel The plot is very slow after the initial murder of Evelyn Mercer and this may have put many off. It does, however pick up towards the middle third and by the end it has reached full throttle. The gritty realism of the story is enhanced by the winter scenes on the streets of Detroit. I can't say I was overly enthused by the choice of music throughout, but then it's not really my scene man. The performances were all excellent with Mark Wahlberg and Tyrese Gibson taking most of the spotlight, but I thought nobody put a foot wrong throughout. Over all a gritty realistic and sometimes brutal revenge thriller. Maybe a little too slow for some in the beginning but the pace does pick up (I promise).SteelMonster's verdict: RECOMMENDEDMy score: 7.2/10You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.