Reviewer's Rating 3 out of 5
Undercover Brother DVD (2003)

Discover the cartoon inspiration for "Undercover Brother" on the one DVD feature worth a look.

TECHNICAL FEATURES

Picture Bright, brash and colourful, this transfer pulls no punches.

Sound The 5.1 sound mix is a funked-up delight of cool tunes that will have your sub woofer pulling on an afro and getting down, whether your neighbours like it or not.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio Commentary One Director Malcolm Lee does not have enough to say about his movie to fill a commentary. Indeed he does himself no favours here by revealing a string of plot changes and material that had to be re-shot. It becomes clear that he was not in full control of his vision.

Audio Commentary Two Eddie Griffin may bring a certain charm to his role as the titular agent but here he's just a waste of space. He makes the mistake of trying to do a funny commentary, but without scripted material he's soon floundering and dragging us down with him into a sea of boredom.

Welcome to the Brotherhood If you're looking for 20 minutes of inane comments then this making of featurette should satisfy. With comments like "It's a movie for people who like to have a lot of fun", and Denise Richards revealing that "I'm the white girl in the movie", you're guaranteed to learn nothing of substance. Worse than that, this is just dull.

Deleted Scenes Having proved himself unable to make concrete decisions with the main feature audio commentary, Malcolm Lee is back to remind us of all the material he dithered over. Sixteen deleted scenes reside here and, shame of shame, we find a Jim Kelly cameo cut out of the movie because test audiences didn't know who he was. (Jim Kelly was in "Enter the Dragon".)

Outtakes This isn't funny - it's just stuff you find on the sole of your shoe.

Animated Shorts And lo, for amongst all this garbage is entertainment. In this section you'll find 20-minutes worth of the original "Undercover Brother" cartoons as shown on the net. Funny, observant, and often witty, we could have done with more of this.

Additional Extra Features Also on this DVD is a music video and two trailers.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Chapters: 20
Ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Audio Tracks: English
Subtitles: English
Captions: None
Menus: Animated, with music
Special Features Subtitles All of the special features come with subtitles apart from the music video.

This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-N5 DVD player.

End Credits

Director: Malcolm D Lee

Writer: John Ridley, Michael McCullers

Stars: Eddie Griffin, Chris Kattan, Denise Richards, Aunjanue Ellis, Dave Chappelle, Billy Dee Williams

Genre: Comedy

Length: 86 minutes

Cinema: 2003

DVD: 18 August 2003

Country: USA