THE BROTHERS A film review by Annette Cardwell Copyright 2001 filmcritic.com
Like many other African-American-targetted flicks like The Best Man and Waiting to Exhale, The Brothers is best when it's trying to be a comedy and comes off as fluffy if not sappy and lame when attempting to teach us more serious lessons about life and love. But this movie about the trials and tribulations of four attractive, successful "buppies" will definitely entertain, and it's sure to rake in the box office cash.
The four "brothers" are commitment-fearing Jackson (Morris Chestnut, who also starred in The Best Man), woman-hating playboy Brian (Bill Bellamy), not-so-happily married Derrick (D.L. Hughley) and reformed womanizer Terry (Shemar Moore). When Terry decides to get married, his boys start sizing up their own lives.
Jackson's new girl Denise (Gabrielle Union) seems like "the one," until he finds out a secret from her past. Derrick's wife (Tamala Jones) isn't meeting his -- ahem -- needs. And Brian is busy fighting off crazy "sistahs" and venturing into interracial dating, only to find that all women are -- to him -- just plain crazy anyway. In the end, they all have a lot to learn, as all these kinds of movies seem to preach.
Unfortunately, you'll have to endure the film's preaching to enjoy the truly hilarious dialogue and ad libbing from this talented cast. While the script is full of great lines for him to deliver, almost everything that comes out of Hughley's mouth gets a laugh. He's especially a riot in the outtakes shown at the end of the movie, where he invents new versions of one of the film's already hysterical speeches.
Bellamy and Chestnut are serviceable and sometimes even good in their roles, but the wooden Moore is clearly just hunky, chiseled, Rick Fox-wannabe eye candy. Thankfully for him, this is definitely the type of movie that calls for a guy like Moore. It's a picture that's tailor-made for the ladies -- especially black women -- who will be swooning over these almost-perfect, hard-working, educated "brothers" who just need a good woman to make them "wanna be a man." And, it doesn't hurt to throw in a few gratuitous shirtless basketball scenes that could rival the famous volleyball scene from Top Gun.
For anyone who's already a fan of Hughley or the comedy of Chris Rock and his ilk, or even if you just like ogling a pack of "fine" young African-American men, The Brothers has a lot to offer. Don't go looking for any sage revelations on life, love and happiness. When this hit-and-miss script gets up on its pulpit, you may want to walk out on the sermon.
Rating: ***
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\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
\ *** Average, hits and misses \
\ ** Sub-par on many levels \
\ * Unquestionably awful \
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MPAA Rating: R
Director: Gary Hardwick Producer: Darin Scott, Paddy Cullen Writer: Gary Hardwick Starring: Morris Chestnut, D.L. Hughley, Bill Bellamy, Shemar Moore, Tamala Jones, Gabrielle Union, Tatyana Ali
Web site: http://www.spe.sony.com/movies/thebrothers/
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