Undercover Brother: "Watch Out Colonel, Here Comes the General!"

This had been the movie I'd been waiting a long time for. I heard about this way, way back. About the same time I heard about when ended up being that horrible piece of garbage, Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.

But, I didn't see or hear anything about it until the trailer that went along with The Scorpion King. What I did saw told me that this was going to be an incredible film. If there were any costume shops in my area, I was going to buy an afro before I went to see it today.

For those of your who are afraid that Undercover Brother is going to be a huge 1 1/2 hour long anti-white joke, it's really not. The whole point of Undercover Brother is that "The Man" wants to end the integration of the cultures, and is striking to remove the hipness from society. It's more a celebration of peoples more than an invidividual culture. That being said...

What's Goin' Down

Angered by the rising influx of hipness is American culture, "The Man" wants to whitewash America, taking America back to a time before the funk infused 70s.

The B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. (They never explain what the individual letters are.) a secretive organization working to stop "The Man" is attempting to break into Multinational Corp's bank, and get access to "The Man"'s financial infrastructure.

They get disrupted, and unbeknownst to them, Undercover Brother is in the building trying to get poor people mortgage loans. He puts on an impressive display of funk-fu, and the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. decides that they should team up with him.

Meanwhile...

The announcement of Billy Dee Williams running for President, and looking conspicuously like Colin Powell, prompts "The Man" to commission Mr. Feather (played by Chris Kattan) to enact a plan to destroy Williams.

He does this through a mind control drug, and makes Williams open up a chain of chicken restaurants instead of running for the Presidency.

And so, the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. and Undercover Brother go inside to destroy the nefarious plot.

The whole gimmick works perfectly. I've heard some people call this movie Shaft meets Austin Powers. Not quite. This movie stands on its own really. In any case, it can't be simplified into a combination of 2 movies. It's more like 50, and there are hundereds of pop culture references thrown in to boot.

I, and the rest of the jam packed theater was laughing nearly the entire way through the movie. There was maybe 5 minutes or so when a gag went too long, where there wasn't much laughter. Aside from that there were laughs, and then huge, knee-slapping, bust out loud laughter moments.

I don't know how the guys doing the casting knew this, but Neil Patrick Harris as a B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. agent (Affirmative Action) and Chris Kattan are PERFECT.

Normally I hate Chris Kattan. I think his "Mango" and "Mr. Peepers" characters on Saturday Night Live are the worst character they've made since the "Superstar" chick, and the two lame cheerleaders.

In this movie, he fits right in. It's unbelieveable. Neil Partick Harris manages to turn it on, too, which is good, because I can't remember the last time I actually saw him do anything good that didn't have "M.D." in it.

Even Dave Chapelle, who is usually comic removal fills a role where he's his usual idiot self, but he's toned down and reigned in enough so that his character actually adds something to the movie. The whole cast of people invovled in the production play off each other very, very well, and make for one awesome movie event.

I'd see this again in the theater tomorrow, and I'm definitely getting the DVD. It may not be your kind of humor, but everyone in my theatre was laughing, and I didn't see anyone that was leaving that looked disappointed.

Don't leave too early into the credits, though. There are 2 different little bits they throw in at the end. Most people left during the first one. If you do, you'll miss the part where they make Oreos. ;)