The premise is basic: Harry Brown, played by Michael Caine, seeks to avenge the death of an elderly friend.

Harry lives on a hellish estate where danger lurks round every corner. The gritty urban landscape is a far cry from the picturesque postcard London we are used to.

When his only friend is savagely killed by a pack of disenfranchised youths, the ex-marine hunts down the culprits and exacts a bloody revenge.

Pensioner power…

Harry Brown is timely. The movie taps into and exploits the pervading fear among Britons about the rise of anti-social behaviour.

The estate is lawless, police unable to control rampaging youths; broken families are caught in a perpetual cycle of violence.

Faced with such antagonism does one run or fight back?

It’s a question we are all faced with to varying degrees at some point in out lives.

Harry Brown’s answer is to take the law into his own hands.

You’re a Loose Cannon Brown…

I’ve heard film critic Mark Kermode suggest Harry Brown almost justifies vigilantism; that it promotes the notion only violence can quell violence.

And as the escalating troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan show, ‘shock and awe’ isn’t always the best plan of attack.

I can’t help feel though that Harry Brown is essentially a conventional revenge thriller.

Yes there’s a socio-political allegory at play, but this always comes second to the movie’s genre-like credentials.

Where the film struggles is in marrying these two ideals together.

Harry Brown precariously straddles the line of gritty urban drama and conventional revenge thriller. On the one hand, you have a character driven tale of a man imprisoned in his own home and on the other, a narrative which has ‘Hollywood’ stamped all over it.

The excessive use of CGI blood also took me out of a number of scenes.

That said, for the most part I was riveted to the screen. This was largely down to Caine’s beautifully complex portrayal of a man with ‘nothing left to lose’. Fragile and ruthless in one, Harry Brown guides the viewer through a concrete jungle of despair.

And Barber shows real promise as a director, displaying the material through a prism of well composed and interesting shots.

Harry Brown entertains from start to finish and also has something to say in the process; well worth a watch.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars – available on Blu-ray and DVD