Movie Summary of Harry Brown by Michael The Moviegoer.
HARRY BROWN = ***
“Grandpa Torino”
It might be hard to imagine Michael Caine as a Clint Eastwood-style vigilante, but Caine pulls off that role surprisingly well. Caine plays the title character in “Harry Brown”. A quiet senior citizen trying to live in a neighborhood being ravaged by drugs and gang violence. When his friend is brutally murdered Caine sets out on a one-man crusade seeking revenge.
The similarities to last year’s brilliant Clint Eastwood film “Gran Torino” are many and far too uncomfortable. There are moments that look like “Harry Brown” is simply trying to imitate Eastwood’s film.
But “Gran Torino” succeeds as a psychological character study, where “Harry Brown” only seems interested in being an excuse for way-over-the-top on-screen violence. In that respect it starts to feel more like a Guy Ritchie film than one Eastwood might make.
That being said, “Harry Brown” does work as an entertaining action thriller about vigilante justice. And Michael Caine’s performance is surprisingly one of his strongest. It’s well worth a look.
DVD Double Feature: In “Gran Torino” Clint Eastwood plays an aging war veteran watching his old Michigan neighborhood turn into a gang-filled war zone. He’s the ultimate bigot, supremely prejudiced against anyone and anything not American. But he forms an unlikely bond with his Korean neighbors and tries to protect them from the escalating gang violence around them.
Michael The Moviegoer
