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The Brave One

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The Brave One (2007)

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Reviews Counted:178

Fresh:77

Rotten:101

Average Rating:5.6/10

Consensus: Magnetic by between Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard can't quite compensate for The Brave One's problematic and unconvincing eye-for-an-eye moral.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong violence, language and some sexuality.

Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins

Genre: Justice, Thriller, Theatrical Release, New York City, Revenge

Theatrical Release:Sep 14, 2007 Wide

Box Office: $36,765,734

Synopsis: For Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), the streets of New York are both her home and her livelihood. She shares the sounds and the stories of her beloved city with her radio audience as the host of the... For Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), the streets of New York are both her home and her livelihood. She shares the sounds and the stories of her beloved city with her radio audience as the host of the show "Street Walk." At night, she goes home to the love of her life, her fiance David Kirmani (Naveen Andrews). But everything Erica knows and loves is ripped from her on one terrible night when she and David are ambushed in a random, vicious attack that leaves David dead and Erica close to it. Though Erica's broken body heals, deeper wounds remain--the devastation of losing David and, even more overwhelming, a suffocating fear that haunts her every step. The city streets she had once loved to roam, even places that had been warm and familiar, now feel strange and threatening. When the fear finally becomes too much to bear, Erica makes a fateful decision to arm herself against it. The gun in her hand becomes a tangible way to protect herself from an intangible enemy...or so she thinks. The first time she shoots someone, it is kill or be killed. The second time is also in self-defense...or did she make a choice not to take herself out of harm's way? The fear that had once paralyzed her has been replaced by something else...something that drives her to reclaim the life that was taken from her that night...something that Erica does not even recognize in herself. Stories of an anonymous vigilante grip the city, and NYPD detective Sean Mercer (Terrence Howard) becomes increasingly determined to track down the killer. As he pieces together the clues, the evidence begins to point not to a guy with a gun...but a woman with a grudge. With Mercer closing in and her own conscience trying her, Erica must decide whether her quest for some form of justice, and even vengeance, is truly the right path, or if she has become the very thing she is hunting. Two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster ("The Silence of the Lambs," "The Accused") and Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard ("Hustle & Flow," "Crash") star in "The Brave One." The film is directed by Academy Award winner Neil Jordan ("The Crying Game") and produced by Joel Silver ("The Matrix" trilogy, "V For Vendetta") and Susan Downey ("Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang"). The main cast also includes Naveen Andrews (TV's "Lost," "The English Patient") as David, Erica's fiance; Nicky Katt ("Grindhouse") as Mercer's partner, Detective Vitale; and Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen ("Melvin and Howard") as Carol, Erica's boss at the radio station. Jordan directed "The Brave One" from a screenplay by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A. Taylor and Cynthia Mort, story by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A. Taylor. Herbert W. Gains, Jodie Foster, Dana Goldberg and Bruce Berman served as executive producers. The behind-the-scenes creative team included Oscar-winning director of photography Philippe Rousselot ("A River Runs Through It"), marking his fourth collaboration with Jordan, production designer Kristi Zea ("The Departed"), Jordan's longtime editor Tony Lawson ("Michael Collins," "The End of the Affair"), costume designer Catherine Thomas ("Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2") and Oscar-nominated composer Dario Marianelli ("Pride & Prejudice"). "The Brave One" is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, of a Silver Pictures Production. "The Brave One" has been rated R by the MPAA for strong violence, language and some sexuality. --© Warner Bros [More]

Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt

Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt, Mary Steenburgen

Director: Neil Jordan

Director: Neil Jordan
Screenwriter: Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor, Cynthia Mort
Story: Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor
Producer: Joel Silver, Susan Downey
Composer: Dario Marianelli
Studio: Warner Bros.

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Release:

Feb 5, 2008

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Reviews for The Brave One

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101 - 120 (sorted by date)
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Less a brave movie than a foolhardy one. Trapped in a no man's land between seriousness and pulp trash, it plays like a combination of Death Wish and The Hours. If that sounds like an awkward fit, it is.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
09/14/07
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The likes of the great, loony Ms. 45 and dozens of Asian exploitation movies did [this subject] trashier. Yet, somehow, many of those felt more honest.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
09/14/07
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

Eventually we wake up. This is really just another Ms. .45 revenge flick, only with artistic pretensions.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
09/14/07
Robert W. Butler
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

We loved looking at the movie. The performances from Foster and Howard are absolutely terrific. What the hell any of it means escapes us.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
09/14/07
Liz Braun
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

It's lily-livered narrative cowardice, and I reject it.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
09/14/07
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle

It is vengeance porn dressed up as an important film, a reverse slasher movie feigning some weak pretense of meaning beyond its own bloodlust.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
09/14/07
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News

Thoughtful action picture? Meditation on grieving? The Brave One tries to be both but just misses its target, despite the presence of a magnetic Jodie Foster.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
09/14/07
Dezhda Gaubert
Dezhda Gaubert
E! Online

The Brave One is as bold a movie as we are likely to see this year, a movie that has more in common with 1970s provocations like Straw Dogs and Taxi Driver.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
09/14/07
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

What the screenwriters don't achieve in dialogue, director Jordan often delivers visually. He and his cinematographer employ a particularly powerful way to evoke Erica's resurfacing. It resembles a slow blink; it suggest a brain grappling to make sense.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
09/14/07
Lisa Kennedy
Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post

Psychological suspense is what makes The Brave One spellbinding. The movie doesn't dine out on action scenes, but regards with great curiosity how these two people will end up.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
09/14/07
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

What might have been a serious drama about coming to terms with violence and loss turns into a crowd-pleasing and increasingly far-fetched remake of Death Wish.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
09/14/07
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

The Brave One is oppressively plot-driven. All the mood is snuffed out. The filmmakers so want Erica's actions to make sense to us that the movie usually seems illogical despite itself.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
09/14/07
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Erica finds herself in mortal danger so often you'd think New York had reverted to pre-Giuliani anarchy.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment 3 Comments
09/14/07
Pete Vonder Haar
Pete Vonder Haar
Film Threat

Fundamentally insane.

Full Review Source: Baltimore Sun | comment 2 Comments
09/14/07
Michael Sragow
Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun

An ugly, manipulative mess.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
09/14/07
Bill Goodykoontz
Bill Goodykoontz
Arizona Republic

Where once [Foster] made Nell... and, yes, Silence of the Lambs, now she makes commercial trash like this. She, and her fans, deserve better.

Full Review Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette | comment Comment
09/14/07
Daniel M. Kimmel
Daniel M. Kimmel
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Even the masterful Jodie Foster can't manage to raise this sluggish vigilante yarn above other movies of its ilk.

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
09/14/07
Kit Bowen
Kit Bowen
Hollywood.com

Foster is so good, and the plight of an ordinary person destroyed by violence so compelling, that the movie is likely to be a hit.

Full Review Source: Contra Costa Times | comment Comment
09/14/07
Mary F. Pols
Mary F. Pols
Contra Costa Times

Foster and Howard are both wonderful actors and they try very hard to make this soul stuff work. But the absurdity of the script does them in.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
09/14/07
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor

Foster is remarkably believable. She never seems to be 'acting'.

Full Review Source: tonymedley.com | comment Comment
09/14/07
Tony Medley
Tony Medley
tonymedley.com
 
 
101 - 120 (sorted by date)
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Latest News for The Brave One

February 04, 2008: RT on DVD: The Brave One, Assassination of Jesse James Fire Onto DVD
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