HARRY BROWN: he's a pissed off pensioner with a gun

HARRY BROWN is essentially a retread of "Death Wish" with Michael Caine replacing Charles Bronson and the action shifted from New York to a crime-ridden council estate in south London.
Caine is Harry Brown, a retired former Marine living in a small flat on the aforementioned run-down estate. Following the death of his invalid wife, Harry is all alone apart from his old friend Leonard. Then one night the police call at Harry's front door to inform him that Len's been murdered, brutally knifed to death by a gang of drug-dealing teenage thugs in an underpass on the edge of the estate.

The police have suspects but the wheels of justice are turning too slowly for Harry's liking and he decides to take the law into his own hands. Dusting the cobwebs off his military training he sets out to remove the scum from the streets once and for all.
And at this point the film parts company with any semblance of reality and descends into the deepest darkest recesses of a Michael Winner wet dream. While there's a certain amount of guilty pleasure to be had in witnessing the foul-mouthed yobs getting what's coming to them, they are so cartoonishly bad, the police so inept, and Harry so implausibly successful that the overwhelming emotion is incredulity. 

It's a tribute to Michael Caine that the film works as a piece of entertainment despite the ridiculous premise. His performance is restrained and understated, and imbued with a credibility borne of his cinematic past as a screen bad boy and 1971's "Get Carter" in particular. Harry Brown is Jack Carter as a senior citizen and it's difficult not to root for him.
Required viewing for any pensioner who's ever been made to feel afraid by a bunch of loudmouthed disrespectful kids, HARRY BROWN also demonstrates there's plenty of life left yet in the 76 year old Sir Michael. I just hope he doesn't get any ideas about turning HARRY BROWN into a British "Death Wish" franchise.