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Click above to purchase "The Brothers" at amazon.com
The Brothers
review by Ren C.
Rated R
Studio: Columbia/Tristar
Running Time: 102 minutes
Starring Morris Chestnut, D.L. Hughley, Bill Bellamy,
Shemar Moore
Written and Directed by Gary Hardwick
Retail Price: $24.95
Features: Audio Commentary with Director Gary
Hardwick, "The Brothers: A Conversation with Gary Hardwick"
Featurette, Deleted Scenes with optional audio commentary by
Director Gary Hardwick, Eric Benet Music Video, Theatrical
Trailers, Filmographies
Specs: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, English Dolby
Digital 5.1, English Dolby Surround, French Dolby Surround,
English Closed Captions, English Subtitles, French
Subtitles, Scene Selections
When it was released in the spring of 2001, "The
Brothers" quickly became a sleeper hit. There are several
reasons for this, but the main reason goes above the ideas
of "race movie" or "guy bonding movie." This is, quite
simply, a well-written and well-acted movie.
In the age of irony, a movie such as "The Brothers" that
in many ways looks very frankly at relationships and the
people in them stands out. The movie revolves around the
titular "Brothers", each approaching thirty, and each a
professional of some type. Jackson (Morris Chestnut) has
nightmares about a woman in a wedding dress with a gun,
standing in for his fear of love and commitment. Derrick
(D.L. Hughley) is already married, but is going through some
major problems in his relationship. Brian (Bill Bellamy) is
the immature member of the group, going from woman to woman
and never finding happiness. Terry (Shemar Moore) is the
only member of the group to actually do something about
growing up, proposing to his girlfriend BeBe (Susan Dalian).
This is the situation at the beginning of the movie, and
from here the movie goes on a very winding road of families
and relationships, but always coming back to the core of
"The Brothers". Jackson meets a girl named Gabrielle
(Danielle Union), who he thinks may be the one. This
motivates the rest of the men to shake up their lives as
well, with Derrick's wife leaving him, Brian starting to
take account of his life, and Terry questioning whether he
wants to be with BeBe forever. Through all of this however,
"The Brothers" remain a tight unit, and start to see that it
is up to them to both get each other through the drama, and
to grow up.
This movie actually surprised me by how deep it was. I
was expecting a comedy that was very surface-level, and what
I got was almost a romantic film about four men learning the
meaning of being in love. I want to compare the film to
"Waiting to Exhale", although this film is a lot less
mean-spirited and actually has the men take responsibility
for a lot of their actions. A great supporting cast is also
in place here, with Marla Gibbs, Tatyana Ali and Tamala
Jones all playing smart, interesting roles. This is actually
a fairly intelligent movie, and not one that should be
overlooked by those interested in romantic comedies.
The anamorphic transfer for this movie looks really good,
and holds up to all of the expectations that I have for such
a recent release. Colors are bold without any bleeding, and
black levels are deep and rich. There is no noticeable grain
on the transfer, and no artifacts are apparent. On the
whole, this is a very good transfer.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix here also stands up quite well.
Perhaps the most noticeable sound related thing in the movie
is its deep, bass-filled soundtrack, which definitely used
the full potential of the 5.1 mix and filled the room
whenever it came on. However, this never overshadowed
dialogue, with only one scene where dialogue was slightly
hard to decipher. Ambient sounds were used well, and overall
this was a very nice mix.
Columbia has definitely put together a nice set of
features for this release. Starting off, we have the
Director's Commentary with Gary Hardwick. Definitely
not a groundbreaking commentary, Hardwick seems fairly
restricted to explaining the plot and pointing out what is
happening on-screen. I would have liked a commentary from
"the Brothers" themselves, but this is certainly a nice
addition.
Next up is the Featurette, which is a conversation
with Hardwick intercut with scenes from the movie. Not quite
promotional, but not quite groundbreaking either, Hardwick
talks about writing the screenplay, casting, and a number of
other factors that play into the making of the movie.
Clocking in at about twenty-two minutes, this is a nice
interview, but probably something that'll only be watched
once.
A set of four Deleted Scenes are included, three
of which come with director's commentary. These scenes
mostly deal with the families of "The Brothers", and while
all of them are fairly interesting, I can understand why
they would have been cut for time.
An Eric Benet Music Video is included for the song
"Love Don't Love Me", which is the standard Hype Williams
video cut together with clips from the movie. Fairly catchy
song, though.
Columbia was nice enough to include plenty of
Theatrical Trailers here as well, including the
trailer for the Brothers, along with Wedding Planner, My
Best Friend's Wedding, Broken Hearts Club-A Romantic Comedy,
Trois, and John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars. A series of
short Filmographies of the director and main cast
round out the features.
As I stated before, this is a very nice romantic comedy
that shouldn't be lightly overlooked. Audio and video are
top-notch, and the features, while not groundbreaking, are
mildly enjoyable. Columbia/Tristar has priced this title
nicely, and I have no problem giving it a recommendation.
 (3.5/5 - NOT included in
final score)
 (4/5)
(4/5)
 (3/5)
(3.5/5, NOT an average)
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