I love vengeance flicks. Nothing makes me happier than watching some idiots do something that backfires in their faces. In Taken they kidnapped the wrong girl. In Gran Turino they picked the wrong neighborhood. In Harry Brown, they kill the wrong guy.
Michael Caine plays Harry Brown, a widower pensioner living in the British project, which are the same ones the Caine himself grew up in decades earlier. The place has gotten much worse, according to Caine, as handguns are used more and more in what is supposed to be a handgun free country. Thus the nature of this film, well shot by director Dan Barber. Brown is a quiet man who wants to be left alone with his dying wife and best friend. But local thugs have made living in the area quite the chore. After his wife dies, Brown's friend Len, played by David Bradley and best known as Filch in the Harry Potter series, fights back against the youths with predictable consequences. Brown is a former special opts marine, sickened himself by emphysema, who decides enough is enough and goes on a one man killing spree on the people who have taken his one friend. Along the way he butts heads with a pretty young bobbie (Emily Mortimer) who is trying to solve the case of who killed Brown's friend. She suspects Brown is behind the rash of murders taking place but the chief won't hear of it, blaming rival gangs.
Incredibly, this film got so so reviews from the mainstream and I have to wonder did they see the same picture I did? This is a wonderfully shot movie, well acted and well paced. Not one of the flaws I had though to expect actually occurred. Caine was fantastic as Brown, a sick old man out for revenge. Sure it plays a lot like Gran Turino, a better movie by far, but this was still an exciting and gripping movie. In no way did it deserve the reviews it got. If you like revenge thrillers don't pass this one up. It's a doozy.
4 out 5 stars
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment