Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Radio presenter Erica Bain has a pretty good life but that is shattered when she and David, her fiancé, encounter three thugs as they walk their dog in Central Park on night. The confrontation leaves David dead and Erica seriously injured. She remains in a coma for three months and when she wakes she isn't the same person; for the first time she is afraid. She buys a pistol to protect herself and soon finds herself using it when she is in a convenience store and the cashier is shot by her estranged husband. Erica shots him and is surprised to find that her hands are no longer shaking. Later she shots a pair of youths who threaten her on the subway and is then looking for threatening situations. It isn't long before the police believe that they have a vigilante operating in the city; they however assume they are looking for a man. Erica befriends Detective Sean Mercer, who believes her interest in the case is professional, and learns of a man he has been pursuing for years and goes after him; this time she doesn't use a gun so the killing isn't obviously linked to the vigilante. Eventually she learns the identity of one of the men who killed her fiancé and sets about looking for them… by now Mercer is suspicious that she is involved but will he get to her in time to stop her… or will he even try to stop her?This is a solid revenge thriller which has a slight twist over the usual stories about vigilantes in that the protagonist is a woman. The early scenes showing her ordinary life do a good job of introducing her and makes the events that change her more shocking. It also means we can see how she has changed. Her path from scared victim to armed vigilante isn't too rushed and it is understandable that the police don't suspect her sooner. Jodie Foster does a fine job as Erica; she gives a nicely conflicted performance as a character who appears to want to be stopped. She is supported by Terrence Howard who does a solid job as Detective Mercer. The story is gripping and the end isn't too obvious… but nor is it too surprising. Some may find the ending a little distasteful as it could be taken as implying her actions were morally acceptable. Overall I'd certainly recommend it to fans of the genre, it won't be for everybody though.

Drama for drama's sake.Very predictable. Maybe you can't see the ending, but surely you will know what goes next. So no thriller there.And it is slow. Maybe for the producer that meant moody. But everything goes in slow motion making the two hours absurd. A lot more could have been said in 90 minutes.The story is badly done. And the characters have to speak their thoughts so it would make some sense.And the stereotype is disgusting. The blind and destructive force a woman can be when she is left unmarried. The violent black thugs dressed in new sports gear - they have to steal to dress in those expensive branded clothing. The Asian guy selling the gun who is Asian because it's Chinatown.And everything has to happen in the same small area and about the same hour so we get the same detective. Who has probably seen the movie because he already knows it's the same person.And the main idea? The laws are there to hinder the good in their quest for justice. Right? A film for the hysterical white middle class behind iron doors. The victims are white. Sure, the policeman is the token black so nobody can accuse the producers of racism.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

I just watched the movie on a Serbian cable channel, blissfully ignorant about it, and after the opening sequence in which Jodie Foster¨s character suffered that tragedy, I rushed to my computer to check the plot; I expected some boring, spiritual post-postmodern stuff like a mixture of "Ghost" movie and finding peace in meeting "a good person" who is soul twin of lost beloved one, and so on, but no - I discovered it is a "Death Wish" remake, updated in terms of political and gender correctness (and also in terms of mobile technology).And I loved it, specially compared to move "Larry Crowne" who I saw couple of days earlier on the same channel, and I discovered I had no patience anymore for such romance lemonades, and I was happy to continue watching "The Brave One".It's been quite a while since I wrote my last review, 15 years or so (!; in the mean time Mr. Ebert passed away...), and this probably doesn't look like a review at all, rather more like a blog of a wannabe vigilante.However, anyways, I got thrilled by the movie. Both films - I mean both "Larry Crowne" and "The Brave One" are equally improbable and spectator must suspend indeed disbelief for both, but "The Brave One" feels so good, it so good to see thugs killed, shot, smashed, destroyed.The plot is more elaborate and ethically better explained than in "Death Wish 1 and 2", it began as I said as predictable story of traumatized woman who needs a shrink who would tell her at the end of the film "It's not your fault", because the good shrinks always tells those words and the patient always get cured after that. I even thought it was a true story, as for example about that woman who recognized black cop as a culprit and he got sentenced to 20 years or to life, and I thought it was going to be another heavy film, only less convincing than an average episode for CBS Reality channel.But no, "The Brave One" was more plausible than kitchen reality programme with Anthony Burdain "The Taste" with its bland, fake quarrels.I loved silent agreement between Jodie Foster and Terence Howard. His character - homicide detective with a soul - is in fact most unbelievable character, but it is like libretto in opera: sounds silly, but singers (that is actors) make it credible. It is hard to imagine such police officer in real life, but Howard did it.Last third of the movie is little bit too slow in this complicated fermentation of their relationship, but in that respect the movie is building some more upon "Death Wish", creating some biblical dilemmas and abandoning concept of pure urban western story line.The film has but one comical relief but it is a good one; when young pot smoker is giving description for photo robot, and when he is describing Jodie's character and when he is talking about arrrs, breasts etc, and female police officer at the computer is just shaking her head on it. I can easily imagine audience giggling in the cinemas and long after the film is finished, when people for example stopped over in a pub for a drink.Tho most improbable thing in the film is that point when Jodie's character lost her Ipod in the subway (after very second vigilante shooting) they did not manage to discover anything. I mean, in this time when even hotmail.com is helplessly slowed down so as NSA can read each mail first and when satellites can trace your phones via FB accounts, com'on, that is ludicrous, but I still love that film.This is "Death Wish" free of sexism and open to women's point of view.What a great movie. I assume this film amongst other movies and books is announcing this populist wave which was crowned by Mr. Trump's victory. Those waves alternates every 11-14 years. For example W. Wellman's western "The Ox-Bow Incident" with Henry Fonda from 1943 is typical leftist, liberal movie against lynch, and 14 years later Fonda repeated same liberal attitude in Mr. Lummet's "12 Angry Men". In the mean time we saw right-wing paranoid movies in same time circles.What about "The Brave One", one might ask, is it leftists' movie or right-wing? It is right-wing, in disguise of lonesome woman's revenge. But it's just a theory, perhaps for some film columnist.This movie is soothing balsam for scared people's wounded hearts. One cannot believe any more that Tom Hanks character "Larry Crowne" can seduce Julia Roberts bitchhhy character (Hanks as a producer and actor even managed to destroy "Charlie Wilson's War" which had such a potential!), nor in ghosts who can time travel, neither in guarding angels and White Light at the end of a tunnel. But one WANTS to believe that thugs get punished in a foreseeable future.If it is not possible, it should have been possible.

'The Brave One' tells the tragic story of Erica Bain, a middle-aged woman about to be married to the man of her dreams when she and her fiancé are brutally attacked and their dream is shattered. What happens next is a thrilling roller coaster ride of a vigilante getting even and bringing those responsible to death on her own. I love this movie and I put it up there on the list of Jodie Foster's most best stand out performances in her film history. Of course that's not a shock considering that she's great in everything, but this movie as a whole is powerful. Touching, genuine, and enthralling from start to finish, you would be doing yourself a favor by watching this movie.