Harry Brown

Elite Squad is widely thought to be a fascist film, but no one will say anything like that about the idea of Harry Brown, because it stars a nice pensioner with the face of the beloved Michael Caine. Otherwise, the films are similar in many ways – in the reenactment of criminal scum as a primitive tribe, in offering an easy solution, and in a certain clarity of vision of the world (a fair marine vs. the scum). I didn't mind it when it comes to Padilha, and I don't mind it when it comes to Barber - I'm under no illusions that the situation is any better in selected English housing estates. Otherwise, Harry Brown didn't do much for me. The social tone is rather untrustworthy (I thought it was too arranged), Barber didn't get an impressive performance from Cain, and the script is very clichéd, although he tries to disguise it as the realism of the environment... Overall, I didn't understand what it was supposed to be – a social drama or an unconventional thriller? Eastwood did it a notch more convincingly, although some of the scenes in Barber's film got under my skin. But not too deep. (24/03/2011)

A superb film that will be enjoyed (especially) by fans of Michael Caine, the typically dense atmosphere of British films and the emotions of people who find themselves in hopeless situations against their will. All delivered in a fantastic visual package with perfect music. The best scene: the junkies’ den. Five stars. (31/12/2009)

This is almost better than Gran Torino. The opening scene on the motorbike is the best filmed scene this year, Caine is more uncompromising than anybody I have seen recently and for seventy minutes this really is a five-star movie. But then it starts to go wrong and the finale in the pub totally wrecks it. If it had remained on the “modest level" of pensioner versus local youth in front of a tenement block, I would have been much more content in the end. P.S.: Comparison with Gran Torino is essential, like it or not. Although in the end they are completely different genres, Eastwood worked and relied on the premise that everybody expected precisely what they get here from Harry Brown. (29/11/2009)

If you want to fight against evil, you have to become evil. An atmospheric genre movie that the awesome Michael Caine steals for himself. The screenplay isn’t at all original, but Daniel Barber squeezes the maximum out of it anyhow and does it almost blindfold. Many will compare Harry Brown to Clint’s Gran Torino and they won’t be far off. And even though Harry is more predictable than Clint’s latest film adventure, it’s much rawer, harder and more brutal. And that’s what won my heart. Listen to me. If you don’t tell me, I’ll shoot you in the kneecaps. First one, then the other, until you tell me. So, what do you say? (07/03/2010)

The street brawls are a bit too wild and out of touch with reality, but those British gangs and rowdy youths are evil, and Daniel Barber manages to capture it quite atmospherically and believably in the smaller passages. Michael Caine doesn't fail either, appearing on the surface more affable than the morose Clint Eastwood, but either one or the other suits the viewer. They aren’t bad, but the explicit and uncompromising violence is more entertaining, and its highlight is the terrific scene in the drug den, which is downright chilling, well shot and acted. Too bad about the overacting characterful policewoman and the sentimentality, but it's bearable, and it does say said what it wanted to say. (30/09/2015)