Mark Wahlberg's Underrated 2005 Crime Thriller Is Leaving Netflix In 8 Days - Last Chance To Watch

Netflix’s scale is part of its appeal. A massive roster of titles across every genre means there is almost always something to watch, no matter the mood. That same abundance, however, depends on constant turnover. While many movies leave the service with minimal fanfare, March is shaping up to be a more noticeable clearing of the shelf. A cluster of familiar heavy hitters is scheduled to rotate out, including The Amazing Spider-Man and Titanic.

Among the less loudly advertised exits is a film that has recently found success on streaming giants: Four Brothers. With just a few days left to stream it before its March 20 departure, now is the perfect time to revisit this underrated gem. Four Brothers is not the kind of title many people intend to “get around to” because it is neither a canonical classic nor a new release. Yet for viewers drawn to gritty revenge narratives and star-led mid-budget thrillers, it remains an easy recommendation and a surprisingly durable one.

Four Brothers Is a Hard-Edged Thriller That Still Delivers

Directed by the late John Singleton, who previously made Boyz n the Hood, Four Brothers is a revenge-driven action thriller that leans on blunt momentum and periodic bursts of violence.

The story centers on four adopted brothers — played by Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin (André 3000), and Garrett Hedlund — who reunite after the murder of their adoptive mother, and seek to find whoever was responsible for it.

As they dig past the initial account of what happened, it becomes clear the killing is tied to something broader, pulling them into a criminal network, and testing their bonds and emphasizing the differences between the siblings and the respective paths they chose as they went into adulthood.

Naturally, this provides some interesting dimension to the film, which manages to provide a steady stream of plot twists that ensure the central mystery its story revolves around is continually engaging for audiences. The film also benefits from its ensemble cast, which includes standout performances by Chiwetel Ejiofor as the antagonist Victor Sweet and Terrence Howard as a detective caught in the middle.

Four Brothers Divides Viewers, And That Is Part of the Point

Historically, Four Brothers has sat in the zone of “solidly divisive.” The brothers’ rage becomes their organizing principle, which somewhat flattens secondary ideas the movie gestures toward, such as civic corruption, economic desperation, and the social geography of violence.

It wants to be both a family story and a community story, but the revenge structure keeps pulling it back toward immediate payback. Some viewers see a film that periodically hints at complexity and then moves on before it has to answer hard questions, leading to some more critical perspectives on the movie and its approach than are held by those who focus on its drama and action.

Currently, Four Brothers sits at 6.8/10 on IMDb and holds a 53% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. The sharper contrast is Rotten Tomatoes’ 80 percent audience score, which aligns with the way the film has persisted through cable reruns and now streaming rediscovery.

It was also financially sound in its original run, grossing about 92.5 million dollars against a 30 million dollar budget, proof that the premise and cast were easy to sell. Its financial performance cemented Wahlberg’s transition into action-heavy roles, paving the way for later hits like The Departed and Shooter, which may add additional reasons for some viewers to consider watching it.

Four Brothers Is Worth the Watch Before It Goes

Wahlberg’s film has rough edges, and it makes no effort to sand them down. What it does offer is an efficiently delivered premise, and it moves with the kind of urgency that makes two hours pass quickly.

If it has been overlooked, it is more because it arrived in an era crowded with louder franchises, then slipped into the background of the streaming flood. That said, this also serves as a reason of sorts to give the movie a watch on Netflix before it leaves the streaming service, since it's a film that many may have only missed out on watching the first time around due to other releases that also debuted during this period.

If March 20 arrives too soon, or if Four Brothers puts you in the mood for another Wahlberg-led intensity piece, Netflix has also added Deepwater Horizon. The 2016 dramatization of the offshore rig disaster arrived on March 1 and has been climbing the service’s charts, offering a more survival-focused form of tension.