IDIOTIC, ENDEARING AND UNDERCOVER: Undercover Brother

Far exceeding my lowly expectations, the idiotic, yet endearing Undercover Brother unleashes its farcical humor with a reckless abandon that is, at times, infectious and oddly rewarding. Both spoofing and endorsing the Blaxploitation films from the '70s, Undercover Brother begins with a voiceover about how Black culture went through an upswing during the late '60s and then hit a sharp downturn during the '80s and '90s--a downturn evidenced through images of people like Urkel. Combating this decline, though, is our titular hero (played by Eddie Griffin). Looking as if he comes from another era (Griffin might well have stepped out of a re-run of Soul Train with his platform shoes, huge afro …