Harry Brown (Michael Caine) is an ex-Royal Marines hard man turned polite pensioner in Britain’s answer to Gran Torino.

From the roundel/cross-hair adorned marketing campaign I expected Harry Brown to be some sort of ageing mod superhero and in a way, I suppose he is. The story revolves around bad kids on the estate where Harry lives and him losing a dear friend Leonard Attwell (David Bradley), who has had enough of their constant taunts and takes it on himself to fight back.

Harry stays cool until about halfway through when, having decided the police will do sod all to find his friend’s killer, things really start to kick off. He goes looking for a gun to exact some degree of vigilante justice, encounters skeletal junkies and blows a drugs den sky high, and that’s just the beginning.

As the film builds everything gets a bit Death Wish in a fairly predictable revenge film manner. Detractors will probably pick up on Harry Brown’s fairly thin plot and the negative youth vibe, but to them I say watch something else, if you’ve seen the trailer you you can see what sort of film it’ll end up being. There are few surpises with Harry Brown.

The main selling point is Caine himself, the aforementioned marketing clearly a nod back to his mod-era heyday with films like Alfie (1967), The Italian Job (1969) and Get Carter (1970), among others. Needless to say the film is worth watching for his performance alone.

If you enjoy a good revenge flick that’s not going to change the world with a powerful message or an unseen twist ala Dead Man shoes, then you’ll enjoy Harry Brown. If you’re looking for wholly original revenge cinema watch the 2003 epic OldBoy by Chan-wook Park (soon to be butchered by Hollywood, ho hum).

Watch the Harry Brown trailer:

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