"'Do you know Im going to shoot you in the face? you vile representation of today's youth"

An old man called Harry gets a gun and goes dirty. Or above the law. Except its not an installment of the popular Clint Eastwood film series, no! Its essentially a weaker Brit-grit version of Mr. Eastwoods own Gran Torino.

So we begin with Michael Caine – who, by some grace of God (thats just an expression for you evolutionists), manages to come out of the film with reputation intact – as the ageing ex-Royal Marine Harry Brown. Take a moment to realise the saddening fact that Get Carter is getting on a
bit. Now take a moment to appreciate that an average revenge film has been made to a good-ish revenge film by that very same man. And he brings Batman his tea.

Having lost everyone and everything that an old person on a council estate would hold dear, he see’s fit to exact vicious retribution on the youths that apparently terrorise everyone, everyday, on inner city council estates. It was at this point I realised that frightened Daily Mail readers must of made this film. Its looking more and more increasingly obvious that lottery funding only arrives when you scare the bejesus out of Mail readers. Upon writing this I looked up the Daily Mail review of the film and found they
quoted “Finally, (as if there have been none before it EVER) a film that really matters”.

Douchebags.

Now, scaremongering and bullshit aside, our Harry turns out to be a bit of a remorseless bastard (as the younger generation find out), and the film has a lot of excessive violence. Those of a squeamish disposition should wait for Toy Story 3 (How f’ing epic is the trailer for that by the way!). The worst of the violence comes via some merciless beatings, ‘Call of Duty’-esque headshots, and a full on multi-chav riot that makes the fights in ‘Green Street’ look more like Frodo just getting a bit agitated cos his fat friend ate the last of the Hobbit bread.

If this wasnt enough to make the film get that big red 18 rating then theres also a pretty filthy scene where Cookie off ‘Skins’ gets acquainted with some geezers nether regions. Not the greatest career move – Johnny Depp was in a teen soap once aswell and he’s doing alright.

Now here comes the critical part of this critical review. How else can this film patronise those living on council estates you ask? Well, for a start they have no idea what caused these kids to join gangs. Im not saying I do, but then again I dont pretend that I do, and try to make a film about it.

Is it boredom? Is it because they are a product of their environment? Is it Brown’s fault? Or do they do it cos they don’t wanna be out there on their own? This film doesn’t have the answers, it just has a lot of swearing from characters you end up physically wanting Harry to batter. Oh, and did I mention that the film might sort of glamourise drugs? Check out the size of the junkies’ TV!

If you take out all the stereotyping and needless patronising, the film wasn’t all bad. It was quite exciting in places, and is worth a watch if you are considering paying to see 2012. The shots were imaginitive and Caine as usual pulls out a worldy of a performance. The rapper Plan-B (who is
actually massively talented) plays one yob brilliantly, and his music accompanies the flick. A bright future beckons for him in both music and film, hopefully not in completely typecast roles.

Realistic social commentary this is definitely not – don’t go asking Harry for a Werthers Original, but a good excuse to get out of talking to the other half for a few hours.Go see this if you liked Rise of the Footsoldier, Bullet Boy, Kidulthood or Falling Down. Don’t see this if you get worried about what those kids next door do when you’re not watching your car. Or if you read the Daily Mail.

cris@itsnotatumour.com

Like

Unlike

Tags: Bringing Batman His Tea, Call of Duty, Chav, Council Estate, Douchebags, Frightened Daily Mail Readers, Get Carter, Glamourised Drug Use, Harry Brown, Johnny Depp, Junkies and their massive TV's, lol, Micheal Caine, Plan-B, Probably Should Wait for Toy Story 3, Remorseless Bastard, Revenge, Review, sexy fun time, Someone off Skins, Stereotyping, violence, Werthers Orginal

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.