‘Undercover Brother 2’ Review

Stars: Vince Swann, Barry Bostwick, Michael Jai White, Laila Odom, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Lindsay Lamb, Melanie Loren, Gary Owen, Affion Crockett, Brandon Hirsch, Tyler Crumley, Zac Zedalis, Steven Lee Johnson | Written by Ian Edwards, Stephen Mazur | Directed by Leslie Small

Universal 1440 Entertainment, Universal’s direct to DVD production arm, mine old film franchises once again for a sequel to the Eddie Griffin 2002 blaxploitation comedy Undercover Brother… and you thought a sequel to Benchwarmers was unexpected! Though given we’ve already had new sequels to Kindergarten Cop, Daddy Day Care, the aforementioned Benchwarmers, Cop and a Half, Honey, Bring it On and – get this – even Backdraft; a sequel to Undercover Brother, something of a minor hit back in the day, isn’t that much a surprise. Hell, it beats getting yet ANOTHER sequel to The Scorpion King!

This time round Michael Jai White (Spawn, Mortal Kombat) stars as the titular brother and Vince Swann (50 Central) as his less-than-cool younger brother, Lionel. Way back in 2003, after the events of the first movie, the brothers were hot on the heels of The Man – the leader of a racist, worldwide syndicate known as The Organization – but accidentally got caught in an avalanche, frozen in time a lal Captain America. Sixteen years later they are discovered, thawed out, and as Undercover Brother remains in a coma, undercover brother’s brother (actually the original title for this film) Lionel sets out to finish the job they started. With the help of The Brotherhood, an old foe, and an ethereal vision of Undercover Brother guiding him along the way, Lionel must take on an even more dangerous threat to the black community and the world extreme “wokeness”!

Unsurprisingly, Undercover Brother 2 comes from the pen of Benchwarmers 2 scribe Stephen Mazur (who else would think to dig up another comedy franchise than the man who wrote that film?); who worked alongside Ian Edwards – a screenwriter who has experience in blaxploitation spoofs having written an episode of Black Dynamite, which also starred Michael Jai White. How things come full circle… Combine those two with the talents of director Leslie Small, who has directed a TON of comedy specials for the likes of Kevin Hart, and you’d expect Undercover Brother 2 to be comedy gold.

It’s not.

Though it’s not all bad… In fact if your a fan of the ridiculous comedies of Rob Schneider you might just get a kick out of Undercover Brother 2 – for this film feels very much the same kind of over the top, absurd comedy Schneider makes; right down to the over-egged characterisations, ludicrous situations and goofy, some might say childish, humour. And as such I enjoyed the film immensely. Yes it’s stupid, yes it’s a completely unnecessary sequel but I’ll be damned if Vince Swann’s performance wasn’t incredibly charismatic and simply fun. As as for Michael Jai White as undercover brother himself, well if you’ve seen Black Dynamite you know White can do funny and he REALLY does funny here; in fact I’d goes as far as saying I enjoyed his interpretation of the character a lot more than original star Eddie Griffin!

You often hear people say films sometimes can just be pure mindless fun and that’s EXACTLY what this film is. If you liked the original, or Michael Jai White’s Black Dynamite for that matter, you’ll surely get a kick out of Undercover Brother 2.