Undercover Brother

A Review

by MattBoySlim

Ok, pretend you're a studio executive and someone comes in to pitch a movie to you.

It's a movie based on some semi-amusing web animations. It's like Austin Powers meets Dolemite. The main character is a super-funky secret agent with an afro with a diameter of about 3 feet who works for a secret, independant, all-black intelligence agency called the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. The agency is headed up by the principal from Boston Public and Neil Patrick Harris, TV's Doogie Howser, plays an intern. This agency's sole purpose is to counteract the machinations of an evil, enshadowed man...known as "The Man". The Man is unhappy about the rise in popularity enjoyed by black culture and seeks to stem it by putting white people more firmly on top. The Man is aided by his numer one henchman, named "Mr. Feather", played by Chris Kattan. The whole movie is based on racial commentary about stereotypes and bigotry. But it's funny!

Right now, if you were a typical studio executive, you'd probably not only say no, you'd most likely punch the guy dead in the face and have your studio goons fit him for some cement shoes.

Yet, obviously this movie wasn't pitched to Disney. (Somehow Universal is more open minded...) Against all odds, this movie was made. Beating even more insurmountable odds, this movie delivers on pretty much everything!

This movie is genuinely funny. Eddie Griffin is both hilarious and smooth enough to pull the titular character off. Dave Chappelle plays Conspiracy Brother and is as funny as always. Even Smart Brother, obviously an attempt at a kind of Sherman Klump character, is well done by the guy who plays the father of the handicapped kid on Malcom in the Middle. And, against all logic, Chris Kattan is utterly believeable as a villain. He's still funny and silly, but he's not exceedingly over the top. I don't know how they did it, but they did. I suspect it was made possible with clever editing.

The entire movie was made plausible through good direction and editing. Even rediculous jokes made to be cheezy and hokey somehow come acress as smooth and just goddamn cool. As a matter of fact, this movie just exudes cool, excreting through your screen like sweat. The race jokes walk a fine line between funny and uncomfortable. If handled wrong, Undercover Brother would have been a horrible, cheezy, unfunny mess. However, everything was handled superbly. For chrissakes, who'd think a Kung Fu fight scene between Eddie Griffin and Chris Kattan would actually be suspenseful, let alone entertaining? That's really the theme for UCB. It should've been their tagline on the poster. "Who in their right mind would think this would be this cool?!?"

Anyway, that's gonna hafta be it for this review. It being 1:00 AM on Sunday night with The Matrix playing in the background, I can't think of anything more to say on this movie, other than if you saw the commercials and thought "Ugh!", maybe try to give it a second thought. It has more intelligence than you'd think and more style than I thought possible.

Here's the rating scale:

1 = Guaranteed to cause anal leakage accompanied with disgust and moral outrage.
2 = Guaranteed to cause anal leakage accompanied by a general melancholy.
3 = Guaranteed to cause anal leakage accompaniedby a vauge feeling of "meh".
4 = Guaranteed to cause anal leakage from a good laugh or two and say, "Eh, that wasn't bad...".
5 = Guaranteed to cause so much anal leakage from fits of hilarious laughter and the feeling you get when you've just seen a really cool movie to put WOW chips to shame, leaving you only to scrub your pants and couch with OxyClean in remeniscence.

I give Undercover Brother a 4.5. It was really funny and cool. And the best part? No actual anal leakage! (Not from the movie anyway....what do I mean by that? Well, you see....OoOoO!!! It's the part where Neo says "No." to the bullets and picks one out of the air!!! Maybe next time....)