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# ‘Four Brothers’ fails to please
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/four-brothers-fails-to-please/
- Published: 2005-08-12T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:34:52.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

A saintly old woman gets killed in a grocery store robbery, and the four foster sons she raised go after some serious payback in this latest disappointment from director John Singleton, whose career started off with a bang (1991’s “Boyz n the Hood”) and hasn’t popped again since. With duds like “Poetic Justice,” “Baby Boy,” the disastrous “Shaft” remake and now this on his resume, evidence continues to mount that Singleton is more of a one-hit wonder than the wunderkind many once hailed him to be.

The titular sibs, the Mercers, include paroled tough guy Bobby (Mark Wahlberg, Hollywood’s great enigma), lady killer Angel (Tyrese Gibson), rockstar wanna-be Jack (Garrett Hedlund) and family man Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin). The boys hail from Detroit, a cold and angry place that as depicted here makes South Central LA and its ilk look like Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. Lawlessness abounds, and traditional cultural boundaries have been eliminated. White, black, yellow, good, bad, ugly … it all goes together in one ferociously violent mix, and the only thing that’s certain is that asses are getting whupped from start to finish.

The production design and soundtrack effectively give “Four Brothers” a retro-feel, like the ghetto gangster flicks of the 1970s. The buffed actors mostly deliver in roles that don’t require much finesse. Where the movie comes up dreadfully short is the area where it all began: the script. Clearly, co-writers David Elliot and Paul Lovett didn’t have to work too hard to connect the dots on the pedestrian plot, so you’d think they might have dedicated a little time and energy to crafting the dialogue. Alas, nearly every word that comes out of someone’s mouth is the stuff spoofs and straight-to-DVD Van Damme flicks are made of, like when Bobby tells Jack, “The only thing that scares people more than getting burned to death is people getting eaten alive.” Maybe so, Bobby, but I for one, find the direction this director’s career has gone to be pretty damn scary as well.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 12, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/081205.pdf?ref=smdp.com)