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Undercover brother 212/10/2023 ![]() Directed by Spike Lee's cousin, Malcolm Lee, Griffin's movie captured the spirit of comedic rebellion. In 2002, comedian Eddie Griffin starred in Hollywood's version of the popular web series. ![]() According to reports, it was the first Internet-based project to get picked up by a major film studio. Ridley's Urban Entertainment sold the rights for the Undercover Brother series to Universal in 2000. Among the many creative videos the early internet spawned was the pre-YouTube series Undercover Brother, written by John Ridley - the same John Ridley who wrote "12 Years a Slave", The Wanda Sykes Show, and Barbershop. 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.Before 90% of internet traffic went to only four sites, before the dark times, before the empires of Facebook and Google, the early internet was a funky place, full of ideas and creativity. ![]() You often hear people say films sometimes can just be pure mindless fun and that’s EXACTLY what this film is. 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! 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. And as such I enjoyed the film immensely. 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. 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. 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. 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”! 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. 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. 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. Hell, it beats getting yet ANOTHER sequel to The Scorpion King! 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. 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
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