Harry Brown (2009) or, Old Man Vengeance

♥♥♥

Michael Caine is a determined-looking gentleman on the poster for Daniel Barber's Harry Brown

Harry is an aging ex-Marine, who lives in a crummy neighborhood and only has one friend, whom he plays chess with. When his friend gets murdered, Harry takes up killing off the young hoods responsible. Along with some other criminals.

Michael Caine (Shadow Run (1998)) does well in the semi-comical titular part as the avenging, walking-impaired vigilante here.
Harry Brown takes itself very seriously but is really one-dimensional and reactionary. It proposes that by shooting around 10 people, old man Brown makes his neighborhood safe again. The evil drug-pushing villains seem like mostly fantastic clichés.
England is (still) ugly and bleak in Harry Brown. It is written by Gary Young (Spivs (2004)) and directed by feature debuting Daniel Barber (The Keeping Ground (2014)).

Related post:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Michael Caine gives an interview to Empire Magazine about the film here

Cost: 7.3 mil. $
Box office: 10.3 mil. $
= Big flop
[Harry Brown premiered 12 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 103 minutes. Shooting took place in November 2008 in Essex, London and in the Elstree Studios in the UK. The film opened #27 in 19 theaters to a 173k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked in 67 theaters but never achieved a higher position and grossed 1.8 mil. $ (17.5 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was its native UK with 6.6 mil. $ (64 %). North America was the 2nd biggest market, and the 3rd biggest was Australia with 1.4 mil. $ (13.6 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to one notch better than this review. Harry Brown is fresh at 64 % with a 6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Harry Brown?

The Equalizer (2014) or, Mr. Swift Justice

♥♥♥♥♥

A simple, neat poster for Antoine Fuqua's The Equalizer

  
Antoine Fuqua (Olympus Has Fallen (2013)) made a great villain out of Denzel Washington (Flight (2012)) in his break-out movie, which also won Washington his Best Actor Oscar, tough crime drama masterpiece Training Day (2001). It escalated both of their careers and was also a landmark for African-Americans, as Washington was the first black man to take the Best Actor Oscar, although the fact that he got it for playing a despicable, violent, drug-taking, morally reprehensible character bothered some. This may be an indirect reasoning for the matching in this year's The Equalizer, in which Fuqua directs Washington again, but this time as a straight-as-an-arrow vigilante hero, making up or 'equalizing', if you will excuse the pun, their past misdemeanor in the African-American mirror of self-reckoning.

McCall is a tough, aging guy who is content with a job at the Home Depot, until his local acquaintance, a young woman who is a prostitute from an Eastern European country, gets in trouble with some nasty Russian hoodlums ...

The Equalizer isn't a societally relevant, troubling, groundbreaking film as Training Day was. Instead, it is a potent revenge thriller, based on a CBS TV-series (1985-89), where Washington hands it out to some really ugly Russians in Boston. For those of us who'll never tire of watching ugly Russian mobsters take beatings and some incidental bullets, Equalizer is a joy. - Most people who have experienced random violence will find it easy to revel in having a guy like Washington clean up the tables of rot which society can't manage by itself.
Richard Wenk (16 Blocks (2006)) has written the simple, solid script. Dissatisfied customers will claim that Equalizer is too much at times, - but I'll say they ordered the wrong dish. This dish is revenge, and that's gotta be cold, just as it is here.
The script's most satisfying turn in my opinion is its finale, SPOILER which is set inside the Home Depot where our hero works: As the militarized Russians enter the Home (Mart), they've sort of asked for what's coming, haven't they? Needless to say, such a location abounds with booby-trap materials...
The Equalizer first of all has bad-ass Washington going for it, and fans of the great will appreciate hit turn here, even if it isn't among his dramatically powerful films. The Equalizer is also a tad long at 131 minutes. - It doesn't have annoyingly superfluous passages but just takes its time telling its story. There's well-produced, fine, professional photography by Mauro Fiore (Avatar (2009)) and a good, tight, slightly Drive (2011)-reminiscent score by Harry Gregson-Williams (Deja Vu (2006)).

The nasty villain is played effectively by New Zealander Marton Csokas (Noah (2014)), who gave me goosebumps at least once. Happening young actress Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass (2010)) is alright as an imperiled prostitute; and David Harbour (Revolutionary Road (2008)) is great as a troubled corrupt cop.
The Equalizer is a vigilante movie with its heart in the right place. I liked the way that the film takes its time closing up shop as well, and finally I must say that I loved the last scene SPOILER of Washington in the American diner, answering some stranger's distress post on Craigslist, just because he can. The Equalizer is all about that guy. The good guy that we all hope is out there.

Watch the excellent trailer for the film here

Cost: 55 mil. $
Box office: 191.3 mil. $ and counting
= Big hit
[The Equalizer continued Washington's impressive box office sway in the US, where it opened first with a 35 mil. $ opening weekend and broke some records, including biggest R-rated September opening as well as becoming Fuqua's best weekend opening. The film has also made decent business abroad and Fuqua has announced interest in a sequel with writer Wenk, if Washington wants to...]

What do you think of The Equalizer?

The Brave One (2007) - How to act in the afterwake of random, deadly violence

♥♥♥♥

Star Jodie Foster looks like she is blaming herself something terrible while holding a gun on this yellow-tinged poster for Neil Jordan's The Brave One

When Erica Bain and her boyfriend are beaten up at random under a tunnel in a park in New York, he dies from his injuries. She subsequently loses her sense of self and changes into another person: A person on a vendetta. First based on self-defense, but soon after with acts of vigilante justice.

 
The Brave One is written by Cynthia Mort (Roseanne (1994-97)), Bruce A. Taylor (Instant Karma (1990)) and Roderick Taylor (Super Force (1990-92)) and directed by Neil Jordan (Angel (1982)).

I enjoyed the suspense-elements of Jodie Foster's (The Silence of the Lambs (1991)) Bain's relationship to the police detective (played by Terrence Howard (Fighting (2009))), who seems close to knowing her involvement in the deaths of city hoodlums, but neglects to actively find this out because he quietly condones it. But it is the moral question of the right or wrong of committing vigilante justice that is the driving core of The Brave One. In that light, it is an inappropriate title for the film, unless it is meant as a compliment to the Bain character for confronting her demons, which she does in the film. Inappropriate because it seems to have already decided that she is right to do so with deadly force.
The film is like a character study of that woman, and Foster is just the gutsy actress who can make it stick. The film has a neat visual expression and a sparse score by Dario Marianelli (V for Vendetta (2005)).

Related posts:

Neil Jordan: 1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) - Jordan's tame, platonically gay vampire yawner 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 70 mil. $
Box office: 69.7 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.99 times its cost)

[The Brave One premiered 6 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 122 minutes. Foster received 15 mil. $ for her performance in the film, reportedly the largest paycheck of her career. Shooting took place around June 2006 in New York. The film opened #1 to a 13.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#3), grossing 36.7 mil. $ (52.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 4.2 mil. $ (6 %) and Japan with 3.3 mil. $ (4.7 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Jordan returned with Ondine (2009). Foster returned in Nim's Island (2008). The Brave One is rotten at 31 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Brave One?

Hard Candy (2005) - Slade's stylish and intense modern thriller classic

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Ellen Page

A skin-crawling poster for David Slade's Hard Candy

It seems impossible to relate anything from the plot of Hard Candy without giving away some of its unpredictable allure, so I will confine myself to presenting its exposition:

A 32 year-old hermit photographer takes a 14 year-old girl back to his home after flirting with her in an online chat-room and subsequently in a café.

I won't reveal more of the plot but recommend the film for anyone up for an edgy, intense and unnerving ride with formidable performances from the leads, played by a real trooper here, Patrick Wilson (Little Children (2006)) who faces Canadian shooting star Ellen Page (Juno (2007)): Her performance and work in Hard Candy is especially impressive due to her age, - and she stands out as obviously a very, very bright young lady here.
The film has some Saw (2004)-like physical uncomfortability to it, - and it was indeed distributed by Saw-handler Lionsgate, - and definitely, if you like hard-edged horror like Saw, then you shouldn't miss Hard Candy. It builds on a gimmick of 'turning tables', as producer David Higgins (The Damned (2013)) also brazenly points out in the DVD's great behind-the-camera-featurette, just as Saw in a way does. More than in that film, though, I believed the gimmick here and didn't notice it as such during the film. - It is too riveting and realistic not to. - The realism of Hard Candy also makes it worse to sit through in my opinion.
It is the 2nd feature from great English director David Slade (Motion (1994)), and Slade has made many intelligent choices with this impressively low-budgeted film, and especially its look is original and well-crafted: The coloring is distinctively alive and confusing (in that it throws its audience off morally a few times), the close-ups relentless and very uncomfortable, especially in the first act, and the focus uncommonly sharp throughout. Intense lighting and photography in the action sequences (perhaps filmed at a higher frame rate), - it all makes for a visually vivacious and continually interesting watch. Remarkable as at least 80 % of it takes place within just one single LA-home. Cinematographer Jo Willems (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)) and colorist Jean-Clement Soret (Kon-Tiki (2012) have both done excellent jobs.
After watching Hard Candy, I'm sure a lot of people will be debating it with different experiences, and few will be able to forget it quickly. SPOILER Personally, I feel that both protagonists are sick, and that the swifts in sympathy from one to the other certainly make Hard Candy unique and daring. It is written by Brian Nelson (Devil (2010)).
For a similarly powerful, stylized and modern, low-budget LA-set thriller with sick twists and great performances, look up Nick Tomnay's The Perfect Host (2010), with David Hyde Pierce in his absolute ace in the title role.
If the subject matter makes you want more, I warmly recommend Michael Cuesta's L.I.E. (2001) with Brian Cox and Paul Dano, which is a personal favorite of mine, - and even better than Hard Candy.

 

Related post:

 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 0.95 mil. $
Box office: 7 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 7.36 times the cost)
[Hard Candy premiered 21 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, in just 18 days. It opened #48 in 2 theaters to a strong 58k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #20 and in 152 cinemas, grossing 1 mil. $ (14.3 % of the total gross). Its biggest market by far was (curiously) the UK with 3.3 mil. $ (47.1 %), North America was the 2nd biggest, and the 3rd biggest was Spain with 0.8 mil. $ (11.4 %). The film was nominated for a British Independent Spirit award and other received other honors. Slade returned with 30 Days of Night (2007). Wilson returned in Little Children (2006), Page in Mouth to Mouth (2005). Hard Candy is fresh at 68 % with a 6.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hard Candy?