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Funkier than "Austin Powers" and almost as sexy as James Bond, Eddie Griffin stars as the title character in what hopefully will be just the beginning of a whole new 'secret agent' movie franchise. "Undercover Brother" is fresh and totally anti-PC - the film plays out as an equal opportunity offender. No subject is forbidden, no joke is left unsaid, and no one is safe from the pens of screenwriters John Ridley and Michael McCullers. "Undercover Brother" takes up where other blaxploitation spoofs left off and does so with reckless abandon and a no-holds barred style that moves fast with nonstop action, a little romance, and free-flowing jokes.

"Undercover Brother" is based on an Internet series written by John Ridley and holds the honor of being the first character created on the net to become the hero of a major motion picture. The story centers around a secret agent, Undercover Brother, who joins with the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. to fight 'The Man' (an actual villainous character). Trading in his lone wolf style - along with his Afro and flashy 70s throwback style of dressing - Undercover Brother goes deep undercover inside 'The Man's' international conglomerate. 'The Man' has cooked up an evil scheme called Operation Whitewash with the ultimate goal of mind control. The first step in accomplishing this evil plan is to take control of the highly respected, intelligent, politically connected, Colin Powell-like, General Boutwell (Billy Dee Williams). 'The Man's' operatives gain control of General Boutwell's mind and instead of announcing he's running for President, Boutwell announces he's opening a chain of fried chicken restaurants that will be serving up Nappy Meals. These Nappy Meals contain fried chicken cooked with a secret recipe that includes a psycho-hallucenegic, mind-controlling drug. It's up to Undercover Brother and the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. headed by The Chief and made up of Conspiracy Brother, Sistah Girl and Smart Brother, and Lance the Intern, to stop 'The Man' and bring his diabolic master plan to an end.

Dave Chappelle (Conspiracy Brother) has some of the film's funnier lines, including scenes where he talks about the ethnicity of historic figures and lists past conspiracies (his OJ joke had the audience laughing so hard that I missed the next scene). Chappelle steals scene after scene by finding a conspiracy in every single spoken phrase or action. Aunjanue Ellis (Sistah Girl) is sexy, smart, and kicks some serious butt as a no-nonsense agent the equal of Undercover Brother. Denise Richards (Penelope Snow aka White She Devil) does what she does best - she looks beautiful and uses her body to its full advantage. The fight scene between Richards and Ellis had men shifting in their seats during the screening I attended. As the two gorgeous women get randy in the shower, Griffin, joined by two hitman characters, does what every man would love to do, he pulls up a chair, pops open a few beers and settles in for a full-on cat fight. This could have been way too over the top but instead the scene winds up being one of the film's funniest and most memorable (I even found it hilarious and I've never had any interest in watching women fight - go figure).

I went into "Undercover Brother" not expecting much. I knew what the gist of the story was from watching the trailer and reading a few articles about the film. If I just used the film's trailer as a gage to determine whether or not the movie would actually interest and/or entertain me, then I would never have given the film a chance. Had I passed on the film because its trailer didn't grab me, then I would have been robbing myself of watching one of the funniest films of 2002. I suspect I'm not alone in dismissing the film based solely on the trailer. Just as they warn you not to judge a book by its cover, so should you not judge this film by its trailer. There's much more to the story than the trailer lets on. "Undercover Brother" is entertaining and it contains some of the best dialogue to emerge from a comedy film this year.

Overall Grade: B+

"Undercover Brother" is rated PG-13 for language, sexual humor, drug content, and campy violence.


Director: Malcolm D. Lee
Producers: Brian Grazer, Michael Jenkinson, and Damon Lee
Executive Producers: John Ridley, Bill Carraro, and Kim Roth
Screenplay By: John Ridley and Michael McCullers
Story By: John Ridley
Director of Photography: Tom Priestley
Production Designer: William Elliott
Editor: William Kerr
Costume Designer: Danielle Hollowell
Music By: Stanley Clarke
Casting: Robi Reed-Humes
Art Director: Elis Lam
Set Decorator: Clive Thomasson

Undercover Brother - Eddie Griffin
Mr. Feather - Chris Kattan
Sistah Girl - Aunjanue Ellis
White She Devil - Denise Richards
Conspiracy Brother - Dave Chappelle
The Chief - Chi McBride
Lance - Neil Patrick Harris
Smart Brother - Gary Anthony Williams
General Boutwell - Billy Dee Williams

Photo: ©2002 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.