Ok, this is a vigilante movie we can get on board with. The first trailer and poster for Michael Caine-starrer “Harry Brown” have debuted, and it looks like it could be fun. Caine plays the titular character, a retired Marine, living on a council estate in London. When his best friend is murdered by a local gang, Brown takes the law in into his own hands, and becomes involved in a cat and mouse game with police officer (Emily Mortimer).
And, from the look of it, it’s cut from a similar cloth to “Gran Torino”, taking a respected, man’s man actor like Eastwood or Caine, and giving them one final chance to break some heads. We weren’t crazy about the Eastwood picture, but this looks darker, nastier and a little closer to reality.
There’s enough here to not be totally convinced yet — the song featured in the trailer, (by terrible drum & bass stars Chase & Status, featuring rapper Plan B, also known as Ben Drew, who plays the chief antagonist in the movie, and is hopefully a much better actor than he is an MC…) is awful, and there’s a slight whiff of “Death Sentence” in the look of the film, but director Daniel Barber, who was behind the 2007 Oscar-nominated short film “The Tonto Woman” is definitely a talent to watch, and the reviews from Toronto were generally pretty strong, so hopefully it’ll be picked up for US distribution soon. The film’s released on November 13th in the UK.
