Undercover Brother

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee, Undercover Brother follows Eddie Griffin’s title character as he joins up with an underground organization called B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. and sets out to stop The Man from interfering in an upcoming election. Filmmaker Lee, working from John Ridley and Michael McCullers’ screenplay, admittedly does a fantastic job of immediately luring the viewer into the briskly-paced proceedings, as Undercover Brother, which opens with a fun sequence establishing Griffin’s affable protagonist, boasts an entertaining and periodically hilarious first act that effectively establishes the picture’s off-kilter world and raft of quirky supporting characters – with, in terms of the latter, the irresistibly agreeable atmosphere heightened by the efforts of an eclectic supporting cast that includes Dave Chappelle, Neil Patrick Harris, and Chi McBride. It’s disappointing to note, then, that Undercover Brother eventually progresses into a flabby, unfocused midsection that slowly-but-surely drains the viewer’s interest, as Lee’s increasingly scattershot modus operandi is reflected most keenly in a growing emphasis on distressingly irrelevant and tedious subplots (eg Griffin’s character begins behaving “white” after embarking on a relationship with Denise Richards’ Penelope Snow) – which, in turn, paves the way for a climactic stretch that’s hardly as compelling or exciting as Lee has surely intended and, ultimately, cements the movie’s place as an initially-promising comedy that feels long even at 86 minutes.

** out of ****