The Brave One (Blu-ray Disc, 2008)

Here's a rare time a take off is getting a TOP GRADE. First off Jodie Foster and the rest of the cast are strong and great. Characters protrayed are WELL fleshed out. Give the writers an award. The only downer is it's really a rip off or 'Tweek' from 'Death Wish' with Charls Bronson. If you liked the Death Wish movies, RUN out and buy this movie. You'll love the fimilar themes. If you did not like Death Wish, this movie may not be for you. Here we go...

Erica (Foster), host of weekend radio show in New York City and engaged to a doctor. During and evening stroll in Central Park, Erica and her fiancée are attacked by a gang of thugs. Her future husband is beaten to death, and she’s left severely injured and hospitalized. When Erica gets out, she’s not consumed by a need for revenge, but rather completely overtaken by fear. The city she’s known and loved her entire life now terrifies her. After several failed attempts she finally makes it out her front door, jumping at shadows and fighting urge to run home screaming. Her tragedy has left her irrevocably altered, but she’d determined not to let the fear she now feels rule her. So, as so many have before her, Erica buys a gun.

Still frightened but feeling empowered, she walks the city, fighting down her terror until tragedy strikes again. She witnesses a convenience store robbery and in an act of self-defense shoots the robber dead. It’s as if her eyes have been opened to an entirely new world. Erica faced her fears, and shot them dead. Determined never to be afraid again, Erica takes to the streets, intentionally putting herself in more and more dangerous situations as if daring the world to give her its best shot. The criminals of the city are more than happy to oblige, seeing only a seemingly defenseless white woman in a place where she probably shouldn’t be. When she attacks, Erica responds with deadly force, becoming a vigilante. With every encounter she grows more confident, but begins to wonder if she’s losing herself in the process.

Tracked by the police and hounded by her own conscience, The Brave One uses her vigilantism as a way of exploring the terrible emotional toll taken on survivors of violent crime. Whether or not Erica gets the bad guys, or whether or not the police catch her becomes much less interesting than understanding what it is that’s driven Erica to this. More than anything The Brave One is about dealing with fear and surviving in spite of it. In exploring what it’s done to Erica, Jodie Foster gives one of the best performances of her career. So does Terrence Howard as a conflicted, honest police detective who befriends her, and then ends up hunting her. One of the best vigilante movies I’ve ever seen. The Brave One takes an obvious, overused movie conceit and uses it to explore something much deeper and more real than you’d ever expect. That only serves to heighten the film’s tense, utterly believable action sequences.

It's got Death Wish all over it. Worth the Theatre house price of $11.00 a ticket and $10.00 for the soda and popcorn. Get the movie on Ebay for $10.00 and under and get your soda and pop corn in a deli. GREAT MOVIE for Cheaper price! Don't miss it!