Dirty Harry

In the mood for some butt-kicking Michael Caine action, we put on Harry Brown. Boy, did that mood go downhill fast.

Caine plays Harry Brown, a veteran of the Irish Troubles living in a council flat in London. His wife is dying and his best friend is being menaced by the local thugs. It's a grim, shut-down life, and it gets worse and worse, then worse, until he finally decides to take the law into his own hands. Yay?

The action comes relatively late in the film, and doesn't provide much relief from the grimness. Caine is a stone-cold dead-eyed killer, and also an old man who can barely stroll away from the scene without suffering an emphysema attack. The police are devoted and determined and clearly out of their league. The thugs are brutal and stupid and there are too many of them to be stopped.

It all has a happy ending that is not terribly reassuring.

In conclusion, a bummer.