Soon, Bobby Mercer, played by Mark Wahlberg (Rock Star), and his other brothers conduct their own investigation as to who killed their mother, finding she was executed. Once they find her murder was premeditated, they go on a semi-violent rampage without any conscience until they find who contracted her murder.

The entire picture's believability factor rests in one aspect of the four brothers' characters. Their lives were completely changed by Evelyn. They became respectful, law abiding street kids because of her.

Jeremiah, at one point, even said their mother would want them to simply forgive the murderers and move on with their lives. Angel Mercer, played by Tyrese Gibson, is even a military man. However, when they find two men who may be the killers, a huge car chase ensues, and when the brothers catch up with the killers, instead of questioning them, Bobby and Angel shoot them dead.

Up until them, the brothers were using brute force and intimidation to get answers, but at that point THEY became the cold-blooded killers, which the influence of their mother supposedly saved them from. This plot point killed that aspect of their characters, and their connection with their mother was killed. THUS, I no longer cared for the Mercer boys any more. Jeremiah seemed to be the only one actually influenced by his mother's raising and now a decent hearted person.

Towards the third act, there's a huge ridiculous shoot out that director John Singleton shows his love of loud noises and no common sense. The only brother who should have been able to take THAT kind of machine gun fire and still battle the assailants was Angel. Why? He has been trained to, being a military man. I doubt bobby has fired a gun in 20 years, and with the set up of Jeremiah's character, I doubt HE would have the dexterity to brutally and repeatedly stab a guy in the heart five times.

The movie simply had way too many actions in it from the Mercer boys, which were not set up as being within their character. There was no inner development given, outside of them being saved from being the people they actually WERE. It made no sense why they did half the things they did, and even LESS sense how they got away with it.

Example: How could the boys walk straight into a gang den, beat the crap out of its leader and there NOT be any repercussions. I was completely expecting a drive by on the Mercer's from that incident alone, but for some reason, the Mercer's get away with everything. Again, makes no sense.

Overall, there was too much unneeded and unfounded murder, death and general violence for me to say this picture was at all decent. The only thing I did like about it was the boys' connection with their mother, especially after staying in their old house. That was all in the first act and they ruined it.

This was just another crap release for the summer of 2005. It makes me sad, since John Singleton was an up and coming director with a very ponient eye, who's been able to ruin pretty much every important and potentially great picture he's touched since "Rosewood."