Four foster brothers avenge the death of their foster mother, Evelyn Mercer, in this film by John Singleton. It stars Mark Wahlberg (Bobby), Tyrese Gibson (Angel), Andre Benjamin (Jeremiah), and Garrett Hedlund (Jack) as the Mercer brothers, four of the most ****ed-up foster boys in the Detroit. After years of minding their own business, the brothers reunite on the night of their mother’s funeral.

At first, the death of their mother seemed to be a random incident, one that often happens in Detroit. After all, who wants the sweetest woman in the world dead, right? But after talking to Johnny G (the bartender), they find out that her death was anything but random. Word on the street is that some gangsters did the job and that someone witnessed it. The brothers go after the informant, the witness and the hired guys who did the execution.

The plot thickens when it seems that one of the brothers, Jeremiah, was involved in the murder of their mother. The most successful of the four, Jeremiah, turns out to be technically bankrupt after the city council rejected his redevelopment project. Their mother’s death makes him the recipient of $400,000. The rest of the brothers investigate, confronts Jeremiah, finds out his innocent, and learns that the Victor Sweet (Chiwetel Ejiofor) ordered the death of Evelyn.

Meanwhile, Victor learns about the Mercer brothers’s snooping around and orders hit on them. Since they are in Detroit, the hired killers go after them in broad daylight(!) at their own home and kills Jack in the process. (I gotta say, Jack calling out Bobby’s name after he was shot was such as heartbreaking incident). This time, the brothers give careful thought as to how they will get back at Victor. And boy did they came up with something real good.

First, they took care of the dirty cop Fowler (killed his partner GREEN). Angel did something right with this one. He took Fowler as a hostage, fooled Fowler into believing that his entire PD knew about him killing his partner, let himself be Fowler’s hostage, and got Fowler killed by his colleagues.

Meanwhile, Jeremiah sets up a meeting with Victor on the pretense that he will make a deal: Victor calls his dogs off, effectively letting the remaining Mercer brothers go, in exchange for $400,000. The meeting was held in the middle of an icy nowhere. It appears then that Victor does not have any plans of honoring any deal, and was actually planning to kill Jeremiah and take off with the cash. But wait! Jeremiah thought about it and actually offered the $400,000 to Victor’s cohorts so that they will not help Victor kill him. Bobby arrives, takes on Victor, and beats him to pulp. Then they dump victor into the ice.

So it’s a happy ending for Bobby, Angel and Jeremiah. Well, they did get arrested after and took some beatings from police, but they were freed eventually.

I liked the twist at the end of the story. I didn’t expect it. I was expecting Bobby to come with all his guns blazing and killing all the bad guys all by his lone self. I guess I shouldn’t expect anything from a Mark Wahlberg movie.

As usual, Mark Wahlberg was superb. The scene where he was crying in the bathroom was a little funny, but poignant at the same time. Tyrese Gibson was also good and I liked his character. Garrett Hedlund had his moments,one which was the scene where he was wide-eyed while watching his Mark and Tyrese kill the hired executioners. Jeremiah was okay but I barely noticed him.

This movie really had story and what amazed me about it was the bond between the brothers. Although not really brothers in the biological sense, they really do love each other and will fight to death for each one. One of the best scenes in the movie, to my opinion, was the bathroom scene. Bobby was taking a dump, Jack was in the shower, and Angel comes in asks Bobby to see if he has rust (whatever that means. I suppose it’s an STD) in his genitalia and Bobby refers the matter to the expert, Jack. The verdict? Rug burn from doing too much love with la vida loca Sofi. Lol.

Interestingly, I didn’t get any profound lines from Four Brothers. I usually do. But I did get something from it. I will remember to keep my elbows out of the dinner table! It was kinda funny in a way since who would have thought I will get an etiquette lesson from an action movie? But I did. And that what makes Four Brothers memorable to me.

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