Harry Brown (2010)

The film is a British version of Death Wish in many capacities, with the stellar Michael Caine as Harry brown leading the way. Taking place in London in harsh quarters as the streets ae being taken over and ran by youth gangs, Harry Brown takes it upon himself to clean it up after a friend is brutally murdered. The film capitalizes on Caine's delivery and raw emotion as he ventures in the vigilante psyche. I thought in general the film was nicely paced and although predictable it shined through with a great screenplay. I give this a 7 out of 10.

A solid flick and Caine never gives a bad performance but...Yes, there is always the but.The Death Wish films with Bronsan directed by Winner, especially the first two were purer, less preachy, directed less like a Midieval morality tale, and generally more entertaining.After the purpose of film is first to entertain, and the lecture on the evils of society only gets in if the first purpose is met.There are others in this type from the UK and some are better than this. I recall one where the middle-aged brother of an ex-gang member is killed and the brother (sort of a Kray type) comes back from Spain to find the killer. What he finds instead is a lot of young punks who have taken over his old neighbourhood and think they invented crime and have no respect for their elders. They soon learn otherwise.That one did not have Michael Caine. But it was a better film

Ex Royal Marine Harry spends his life between hospital, where his wife is terminally ill, and playing chess with his only friend Len, in the local pub. After the death of his wife, Len tells Harry that the local gang is harassing him and he is carrying a bayonet for self-defence, Harry tries to reason with him, and suggests he go to the police. When Len is stabbed to death in an underpass, and the police can only stand back and watch due to orders from above, Harry decides to take matters into his own hands....Its a grimy film to watch, and if you've ever lived, or known anyone who has lived on a council estate, for the majority of the film, it's pretty realistic stuff, and just how brilliant is it that Caine agreed to be in this, there really is no other choice.It could have been so easy for the film to go down the B-movie, action path, but the makers keep it just on the right side of plausible, and the slow, yet tense, build up, only makes the payoff all the more satisfying.But, it's a little silly in places, a hospital would never get rid of a deceased person that quickly, all the more so when a relative is on their way, CG blood is a little over the top and feels out of place in a film like this, and the ending feels a little too Hollywood for me.But Drew is fantastic here as the hoodlum, his character oozes attitude and angst, and you can really feel the hate for his character, not because he's so different from anyone else in the gang, it's because you know there are dozens of people like that, who speak in a faux gangsta' accent, walking abhorrently, trying to be street.These sort of people are a parasite to society, and here they are depicted that way, as parasites.The film makers message is slammed down our throat a little too much toward the end, but Caine more than makes up for the film shortcomings, his coolness throughout the film shows that he calm and collected, he truly makes the film.

This is the known story of a man become into vigilante . An elderly ex-serviceman and widower , Harry Brown , (Michael Caine) looks to avenge his best friend (David Bradley)'s murder by doling out his own form of justice . As a retired man turned vigilante and taking the law into his own hands as judge , jury and executioner. As every man has a breaking point . Harry turns the one-man vigilante when his friend is attacked , beaten and then stabbed to death in an underground passage carried out by furious band formed by some ominous punks . Then he stalks the slums of London and takes the law into his own hands, searching vengeance on crooks, hoodlums, druggies , muggers, pimps , making the neighborhood safer and bumping off delinquents and street scum . Meanwhile , police officers D.I. Alice Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and D.S. Terry Hicock (Charlie Creed-Miles) are investigating the deeds and Police Superintendent Childs (Iain Glen) orders a major arrest operation believing the recent violence is related to a gang war. The late-night raids on the neighbourhood result in a massive riot .This interesting picture has suspense , emotion , intrigue , thrills and lots of violence . It's certainly thrilling , though the morality may be questionable , even in this time, as the spectators were clearly on the Harry Brown's side . Michael Caine with his usual top-notch acting displays efficiently his weapon such as ¨Harry the Dirty¨ and killing mercilessly nasties . Michael Caine saw a lot of himself in the character of Harry Brown, e.g. they're both combat veterans , as Harry is a Marine who served in Northern Ireland, Caine served in the British Army during the Korean war , and Caine lived in the same area that Brown does , it was things like these that drew him to the film . Secondary cast is frankly excellent such as Emily Mortimer , Charlie Creed-Miles , David Bradley , Iain Glen , Sean Harris, Ben Drew and special mention to Liam Cunningham as Sid Rourke . This is Daniel Barber's nice feature debut , he's now shooting ¨The keeping room¨ with Hailee Steinfeld , Sam Worthington and Brit Marling .This exciting and above average film belong to ¨Vigilante genre¨ whose main representations are ¨Charles Bronson's Death Wish¨ , successful crime thriller that created the Vigilante genre with Bronson as the main star such as ¨Death wish II¨ ¨Death wish III¨ , ¨Death Wish 4 : The crackdown¨and ¨Death Wish: The face of death¨ and , of course , ¨Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry¨ movies , such as ¨The enforcers¨, ¨Sudden impact¨ and ¨The dead pool¨ . Furthermore , other notorious movies on the ¨Revenger¨ genre that achieved their splendor in the eighties are the followings : ¨Exterminator¨ I and II with Robert Ginty ; ¨Vigilante¨ by William Lusting with Robert Foster , Fred Williamson ; ¨Walking the edge¨ by Norbert Meisel with Robert Foster and Nancy Kwan ; ¨Dark Angel¨ with Betty Russell ; ¨Steele Justice¨ with Martin Kove ¨; ¨The Punisher¨ with Dolph Lundgren , ¨Joe Don Baker's Walking tall¨ saga ; ¨Lorenzo Lamas's Snake eater¨ saga , ¨Arnold's Raw Deal¨ , ¨Stallone's Cobra¨ and many others .