Date:10/02/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/fr/2006/02/10/stories/2006021002900300.htm

Back Entertainment Bangalore Chennai and Tamil Nadu Delhi Hyderabad Thiruvananthapuram

Typically black-American

Four Brothers

Genre: Action
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese
Gibson, Andre Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund
Director: John Singleton
Storyline: Four brothers avenge their Mom's death, the woman who adopted and reformed them.
Bottomline: Great entertainment

There's something absolutely endearing about black-American action flicks. They are slick, they are cool, they ooze style with peppy rap and hip-hop music, plenty of action, loads of punch-lines laced with black-American humour and heart-warm bonding scenes.

So even if ``Four Brothers" comes with a plot that seems borrowed from the Hindi and Tamil cinema of the Seventies, it still makes for great entertainment.

The classic revenge tale is very smartly executed with plenty of attitude, twists, turns and suspense.

The brothers, Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Angel (Tyrese Gibson), Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin) and Jack (Garrett Hedlund), want to find out why their Mom was killed and then, they want revenge.

As they begin investigating, they have the cops asking them to keep off, they have pressure from family and girlfriends to keep out of trouble. But the more they find out, the more they want blood.

So there are many tense moments, plenty of gun-fire, mind-blowing action sequences as the brothers go about their mission.

Singleton keeps the narrative tight, stacking up one adventure right after another, with oodles of stylised violence, inserting the laughs in all the right places, striking a fine balance between drama and comedy in an otherwise heavy film. There are plenty of expletives too. A perfect watch if you guys want to chill with the gang.

SUDHISH KAMATH