Harry Brown: Grade C

C

Harry Brown (2009)

Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer. Director Daniel Barber.

This is a close remake of the Charles Bronson vigilante movie Death Wish (1974). Caine is a pensioner living in “the projects” in south London, where he and his chess playing buddy are constantly harassed by lawless, drug-dealing, youthful hooligans. When they kill the chess buddy, Caine goes on the rampage, hunting them down and killing them. The police become aware that they have a vigilante on the loose and gradually sniff out Caine. The investigator played by Mortimer is sure it his him, but nothing can be proved. In the end all hell breaks loose.

Acting by Caine is very good. He has always been one of my favorite B-grade stars. Mortimer is actually a better actor, but this is not much of a role for her. I like the vigilante theme, and Caine executes it with aplomb, but the directing is only so-so and the villains are so completely clichéd that it is humorous. Likewise the inept police. The first 10 minutes of the film dealing with the vigilante’s dead wife could be excised with no loss at all. When the predictable ending begins – the big gunfight and big explosions, the movie is basically over. So there is about one hour of good material in the middle that makes the film worth watching.

Juncture: Grade F

F
Juncture (2008)
Christine Blackport. Director James Seale

A young woman in contemporary New York or Boston (there is no clear sense of place), has brain tumor and only two months to live. With her remaining time she chooses to hunt down and kill “bad people” who have harmed children, and that includes everything from middle aged men who collect kiddy porn, ex-con pedophiles (who have served their time), and neglectful, heroin-addicted mothers. She uses newspaper headlines for her research and whatever they say is enough justification for her to travel to a person’s city and blow their head off.

I love a good revenge/vigilante story but this is a cartoon. The character is not well- motivated. She starts her killing spree even before she is diagnosed, so her motivation seems to be (guessing from a brief shot of some tombstones with her family name) based simply on grief. Nobody suspects her and nobody is after her even though she wears no disguises and has a tendency to stand under bright porch lights. At the end she acts stupidly and is chased by police but there is no dramatic tension The acting and directing are execrable, consistent with the terrible writing.

The Brave One: Grade B

B
The Brave One (2007)
Jodie Foster, Terence Lawrence. Director Neil Jordan.

Though mistitled (nobody is brave in this movie), this revenge thriller is emotionally satisfying. A NYC woman is beaten into a coma and her fiancé killed by a gang of thugs in Central Park, late at night. When you see the couple walking nonchalantly into one of those dark creepy overpass tunnels in the park that even a tourist would avoid, you are cued that this will be a cliché-ridden story. Foster’s character recovers, traumatized, now seeing her beloved city as alien and frightening. She buys a gun for self defense, but inexplicably still likes to walk around seedy streets at night, stepping over drunks, taking late night subways, going into dimly lit convenience stores. Bad guys show up in these situations and she kills them. She is supposed to be surprised at her own behavior, but that’s not very convincing and denies motive anyway. Yet she isn’t enraged. She isn’t really out for revenge, since these are random bad guys. She isn’t overtly looking for trouble. She is supposed to be in some kind of dissociative state in which she is only vaguely aware of her zero tolerance of bad guys.

Detective Lawrence is on the trail of “the vigilante killer” (although the papers would have no reason to call it vigilantism), and he eventually suspects it is her, but they develop an implausible relationship of trust and intimacy. Finally, she decides to go after her original assailants and amazingly, immediately finds them through some moves that we can surmise but which were edited out. There is no explanation for her sudden change in motivation from mentally disturbed sleepwalker to clenched-jaw revenge killer. But she gets her satisfaction.

It is a competently told but hackneyed story without anything new to say. However, Foster’s acting is the best I’ve ever seen of her. She has come a long way since Silence of the Lambs. I also think it is gutsy for a prominent female actor to appear without makeup, showing her age, having full confidence in her craft. Terence Lawrence also turns in a strong performance. The music is very well designed, the way it often contrasts with the violent action. The cinematography is consistently outstanding. These plusses raise the picture above average.

Death Sentence: Grade D

D
Death Sentence (2007)
Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund, Kelly Preston, Aisha Tylor, John Goodman. Director James Wan.

Bacon is an insurance executive whose son is murdered by a gang. He loses confidence in the legal system and goes out for vigilante justice. Murder and mayhem ensue. Charles Bronson played the same part better in Death Wish (1974), even though Bacon is a much better actor, and that’s because this movie is so badly written and directed. A great deal of screen time is devoted to assuring us that Bacon is an ordinary family guy who celebrates birthdays with his kids. But that’s boring: we assume it and the message could have been conveyed in 60 seconds. When he turns vigilante, he acts without planning, is unsure and even horrified at himself when he “accidentally” stabs a kid with a garden knife. What kind of vengeant resolve is that? There is none of Bronson’s grim determination or the besieged perseverance of Die-Hard’s John McLane or the revenant fury of Rambo. Bacon’s back is never up against the wall and he seems clueless throughout. As he waits (!) for the gang to come after his family he makes sure the windows are locked in his nice suburban home. There are many other stupidities that detract from the story. What kind of head wound justifies gauze bandages wrapped around the forehead to look like Ray Milland in The Invisible man? Why would you choose a two-shot shotgun to go after a gang of 25 killers? What kind of street thugs bounce up on their toes with each step? The movie tries to make the moral point that personal revenge is not worth it, but that platitude is lost on Bacon. What raises the movie above complete failure is the excellent cinematography, especially in the chase scenes.