Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Undercover Brother (2002)

Director: Malcolm D Lee

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Playing on 30-year-old stereotypes, and overtaken on the journey across the Atlantic by the last Austin Powers movie, this blaxploitation spoof is not exactly cutting edge, though the narrative does hinge on the reputation of a brainwashed black General not a million man march away from Colin Powell, who dumps his Presidential bid to open a chain of chicken restaurants. The Brotherhood smells a rat, and puts Undercover Brother (Griffin) on the case. Sporting bell bottoms, an Afro and porkchop burns, Griffin cuts an implausibly funky figure - at least until he's forced to adopt the disguise of bespectacled buppie Anton Jackson, undergoes a crash course in Caucasian culture, and gets a load of Penelope Snow (Richards), The Man's secret weapon. That's when the funk flunks. This probably won't win many Oscars, but if they gave awards for the stuff audiences really care about - best catfight, biggest platforms, squirmiest karaoke scene, and baddest righthand man (Kattan's scenery-spitting Mr Feather) - then The Hours wouldn't have a prayer.

Author: TCh 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.