"Black Like Him"
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What You Need To Know:
UNDERCOVER BROTHER is filled with lots of very funny stuff. Eddie Griffin is a good comic actor adept at this kind of comedy, and this comical spoof moves at a fast, entertaining clip. Although the movie has some politically correct moments and socialist tendencies, the filmmakers are more concerned about getting laughs from their audience by poking fun at nearly everyone and everything, including both white culture and black culture. The movie contains, however, brief shots of gory violence in one scene, an immoral attitude about sex, many mild obscenities, and a pro-marijuana message. Moviegoers, therefore, should be extremely cautious
Content:
(Ro, PC, So, Ho, B, C, LLL, VV, S, A, DD, M) Romantic worldview with some light politically correct elements and a vaguely socialist attitude, implied lesbianism, some moral elements, and one character says, “Thank you, Jesus”; about 50 mostly mild obscenities (including, however, some s words, one f word bleeped and one f word not bleeped), five mild profanities, a couple obscene gestures, and suggestive double entendres; comical, slapstick and action violence includes pratfalls, motorcycle crashes, gunfire, explosions, chase scenes, car seems to spin out of control, man falls into ocean, martial arts fight scenes, men shot dead, some blood in one scene as man does cartoonish violent acts like ripping out another man’s spinal chord and exploding another man’s head with his fists; implied fornication, leering at women, lesbian scene where two female characters pose suggestively while fully clothed in a shower stall, movie pokes fun at cross-dressing basketball player, and some sexual double entendres; no nudity but female cleavage and tight-fitting clothes on women; alcohol; smoking marijuana implied; and, miscellaneous immorality such as kidnapping, racism, hypocrisy, and black man named “Conspiracy Brother” complains about Republican Party, but other people remind him that Lincoln was a Republican and he helped end slavery.
More Detail:
UNDERCOVER BROTHER is a funny spoof of 1970s blacksploitation movies and a sometimes insightful satire of race relations in the United States. Although it has some politically correct moments, the movie’s political correctness lies more in the concept and premise behind the movie than in the execution. Liberals and other left-wing radicals, however, may not like the lighthearted, often non-threatening way in which the movie handles the subjects of race, identity politics and class warfare, while conservatives and Christians are certain not to like the movie’s politically correct concept and premise, as well as the references to drugs and sexual immorality.
In the story, Eddie Griffin plays a crime-fighting, black hero who calls himself Undercover Brother. Stuck in the 1970s with a colorful wardrobe to match, Undercover Brother sports a large Afro, listens to funk music and drives an old Cadillac. In other words, he’s supposed to be one cool dude.
Undercover Brother runs into a dedicated group of Good Guys, known as the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D., fighting for “truth, justice and the African American way.” This organization is run by a large black man known as the Chief. Helping the Chief are Smart Brother, a computer geek, Sistah Girl, the organization’s top spy, and Conspiracy Brother, who doesn’t seem to do much of anything except talk about all sorts of crazy conspiracies against African Americans. Led by the Chief, they are engaged in a constant battle against The Man, a white villain who hides in the shadows while his henchman, Mr. Feather, played by Chris Kattan, does his dirty work. When a retired black general named Boutwell, played by Billy Dee Williams, is rumored to be ready to run for President, The Man orders, Mr. Feather, “I want the White House to stay white!”
Mr. Feather hatches a scheme to drug General Boutwell so that he’ll decide not to run for President. The Chief hires Undercover Brother to help Sistah Girl stop The Man’s evil plans. Little do they know that Mr. Feather’s scheme has terrible consequences for the ethnic identity of African Americans everywhere.
Based on an animated Internet series created by scriptwriter John Ridley, UNDERCOVER BROTHER makes fun of 1970s black stereotypes, racial conflicts in the United States, the battle between the sexes, and contemporary cultural figures and icons like cross-dressing basketball player Dennis Rodman, General Colin Powell, white boy bands, James Bond movies, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. At one point, Smart Brother has to help Undercover Brother pose as a preppy business executive so he can infiltrate a multinational conglomerate. Smart Brother hooks Undercover Brother up to a machine called Caucasian Vision so that he can learn how to blend into the white business world. Images and sounds of white culture, including polka music, are flashed into Undercover Brother’s brain. After a couple minutes on the machine, however, Undercover Brother can’t take it anymore: he gets Caucasian Overload.
UNDERCOVER BROTHER is filled with funny stuff like this. Eddie Griffin is a good comic actor adept at this kind of comedy, and the comical story moves at a fast, entertaining pace. Although many jokes are made about white people, many jokes are also made about black people. Some of the jokes may cross over the line and become offensive to some people, but most of the jokes are inoffensive, clever and pretty funny. Furthermore, many of the jokes display an intelligent awareness of all the ways that the mass media of entertainment can affect people. In fact, the movie strongly suggests that nefarious people can use the mass media to control other people’s behavior, including their social and cultural attitudes and actions. When you think of it, this aspect of the movie is rather wise and profound.
Regrettably, however, there are some sexual jokes and suggestive double entendres in UNDERCOVER BROTHER. There are also a few jokes about smoking marijuana. The movie also has lots of light foul language, some stronger foul language, including two “f” words, one of which is bleeped, a scene of gross action violence, scenes of implied fornication, and a lesbian scene where the two main female characters pose suggestively while fully clothed in a shower stall. Unlike other movies of its ilk, UNDERCOVER BROTHER doesn’t linger on this offensive content for long periods at a time, but the most offensive portions of the movie lean toward an R-rating rather than the movie’s PG-13 rating. Moviegoers, therefore, should be extremely cautious with this borderline, Minus Two Acceptability movie.
Of course, the concept behind UNDERCOVER BROTHER, a group of good guys working for a secret organization dedicated to ensuring equality for all, is politically correct. So is the movie’s multicultural premise that people of different ethnic identities and cultural backgrounds can become almost completely unified to stop evil. These Romantic notions of egalitarianism and multiculturalism are fanciful, socialist sociopolitical constructs that bear little relation to Christian, biblical or conservative notions of equality, brotherhood and diversity within unity. As Ephesians 4:1-16 and Galatians 3:24-29 make clear, true unity only comes through Jesus Christ. “And, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise (Gal. 3:29).”
UNDERCOVER BROTHER isn’t all that concerned about hammering home some left-wing sociopolitical points, however. It’s more concerned about getting laughs from its audience by poking fun at nearly everyone and everything. Some of those laughs derive from off-color jokes, and the movie’s messages concerning sex and marijuana are immoral. The rest of the movie is relatively inoffensive, except, of course, for the foul language.
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