Harry Brown

Drew's Thoughts:
Ever wanted to see Michael Caine play Dirty Harry? Well now you can. Harry Brown takes the same basic premise of Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino and manages, unlike that movie, to not totally suck balls.
It's not any more subtle or accurate than Gran Torino but it's actually a pretty well made movie, tightly edited/fast paced (the film flies by in what feels like a half-hour) and is also quite violent and bleak.
Instead of puttering around barking inane racist/sexist/classist/homophobic comments as Eastwood loved doing in Torino (you know he did), Caine gives a good performance of as an elderly man not without morality, but pushed to a point where he starts administering his own justice a.k.a. violence on the young criminals causing the deterioration of his neighborhood. Who knew Alfred wanted to be a dark knight so badly?
This film isn't great and probably isn't even good, but it's a testament to what a pulpy story, a great actor and sharp filmmaking prowess can achieve. Plus, there's also some awesome chav accents.