Such a frustrating disappointment

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

HARRY BROWN - 2009Directed by Daniel BarberStarring ​Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer and Plan B(That is not a name)Plot Overview: ​Soon after his wife dies, thugs kill one old ex- Marine's best friends, and he is not going to rest until they pay for it.How is this movie rated so highly? I always rate a movie as objectively as possible and only rate 1/10 if I truly think a film deserves it, and I can 100% say that this film does. It is a travesty to cinema and I can but think of one, one, barely positive strength for this movie. It is a horrible, horrible movie and it is barbaric that it is rated so highly, in my opinion.It was so stupid and convoluted and boring. Both too much and not enough time was spent on the 'script' for this 'movie'. Fun fact, too much time and too little time are mutually exclusive events. This means that they CANNOT, technically both be true simultaneously. But I'll be dammed if this film doesn't break the laws of existence and manages to perform the impossible. It is so, so bad. Even the ending is just plain awful and silly and stupid and REALLY poorly done.Michael Caine is a terrific actor. He has been incredible in countless movies. This is certainly not one of them. This is, possibly, one of(if not his worst) movies were he is the lead. Granted that isn't all down to him. My singular, barely positive strength is that Caine isn't awful in this movie. That doesn't even remotely make his performance good. He just wasn't awful. And I am supposed to root for this guy? Not to say the thugs were angels but Brown was a literal psychopath. ​Emily Mortimer is ..... why is she in this movie again? Oh, there is no reason. I understand now. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have just been informed that the writer, Gary Young, was out of his god damn mind when writing this script! ​ Plan B(Still not a god damn name) is atrocious as Noel. He wasn't intimidating and he mistook cursing for 'ardness.I can't say this movie was poorly shot but something not being bad doesn't make it good. It wasn't poorly done but it wasn't well done. It was average, and that may be one of the worst film sins of all.​ The 'action' in this movie is so, so, so bad. I mean seriously, it is slow, dull and boring. I understand Caine is a fossil but then don't use one of the dinosaurs as an action hero.Harry Brown is really not a good movie in any regard. I cannot for the life of me recommend it. It is awful. I'll rate this movie 1 Psycho Pensioner 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

Fine film, fine acting, I lived there too, saw many of the same things Caine remembers and portrayed well -- housing estates, alienation, boredom, elderly, fears, frustration, desperation. Reviewers & critics here missed those points, often -- the cause was the conditions, not the people, the police not the gangs or the drugs or the rest, even Harry's bravery and training were products of a society which created that South London hell. I am glad about Harry's finale at the very end, but that was a Hollywood-ending and not the movie's -- the Enemy was that ambitious & cynical cop who was manipulating the situation for his own career ends, and the System which had created him and the rest of this.The two leads have done great work -- I'll go see Caine in anything, again and again. The direction showed real talent -- I'll be looking for his work too, I hope again and again as well. This film unsettles me every time I see it, but that was its point.

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.