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If you followed the career path of Michael Caine you might well wonder what happened, from being crowned the King of Cool in movies such as Get Carter, Alfie, and The Italian Job; Caine almost dropped out of the popular movie genre. During the 80's and 90's with the odd exception (Educating Rita, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The forth Protocol) his movies were generally bottom end stuff, most of his output in this time is available on super low budget DVD. For Caine however age made him turn a corner, and as the star tentatively spoke about a cameo in popular soap Eastenders, his movie career took of in ways he possibly never realised. With two Batman movies, Children Of Men, and the highly acclaimed Is Anybody There? Behind him Caine now returns in his intriguing movie yet, Harry Brown.

Harry Brown follows a history of popular vigilante movies like Death Wish, Exterminator, Falling Down, and more recently, and perhaps more similarly Grand Torino. Harry Brown follows a pensioner as he makes the daily slog off his East London council estate past the gangs of violent youths to see his wife (terminally ill in hospital), and best friend Len. In a blink of an eye Harry's life is torn apart, firstly his wife dies, then in a suspicious incident Len is killed by the gangs that essentially run the estate. An ex marine, Harry's killer instinct is revived in a late night attack by the banks of a canal, having easily despatched one of these thugs, Harry is determined to take the rest down, regardless of cost.

To use the term gritty would be too tame a word to describe this movie from first feature film helmer Daniel Barber. From the movies incredibly shocking opening to its brutal finale, Barber has carefully depicted the ultimate hell on earth in the form of a London council estate, forget all those dark desolate New York based movies of the 1970's, Barbers London is a far darker place, more deadly than Afghanistan. What Barber does is shows how these essential ghettos work, some people seeing the trouble some of the time, while others see it all the time. Barber shows Harry Browns eyes widening as he sees the horror of what's going on in the place he calls home. While Brown always knew it was there, he has always avoided the spots that the bad things happen, giving him a more sheltered view.

I suspect Barber has studied CCTV footage of gang related violence, because in the movies first portion he shows how one incident can quickly go out of control, in an instant

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