Customer Reviews
Rent it, or buy it for the price of rental - By: Mr. Andrew Titcombe, 06 Oct 2008 
I love foster's films(Contact, panic room,nim's island).So I could not work out how I missed this one.It's another reallly great film with her & the cast.worth a night in to see,But not one of her classics.for that reason i recomend renting it or buying it cheap.As it is a must see but after that it will only collect dust,unlike other films there is nothing you won't understand or miss the first time you watch it.
Fantastic Thriller - By: Langdon Ulder, 30 Aug 2008 Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) is a popular radio DJ but her life changes when she & her fiance David are attacked by a gang one night, Erica is in a coma for 3 weeks but David dies.
After the attack, Erica shuts down & becomes depressed & when she realises that the police are getting nowhere with the investigation, she buys a gun for protection fearing that the attackers will find her & kill her. While in a shop that night, a man comes in & guns down the cashier & Erica shoots him in self defense. After this, Erica discovers the stranger in herself & becomes a vigilante, hunting down criminals that have either escaped justice or people who threaten Erica, including 2 people on a subway train & a perverted man.
The Brave One does have gore in some places, but not reallly enough for the film to have an 18 rating but regardless of the gore, this is a great thriller that will make people wonder about the stranger inside them & what you are capable of doing if your life is in danger.
Familiar concept, but entertaining anyway - By: one-eyed Jack, 22 Aug 2008 
As someone old enough to remember DEATH WISH with Charles Bronson when it was released in c.1974 I couldn't help but think that this effort directed by Neil Jordan was rather too similar in concept. Way back then, Bronson's wife & daughter were assaulted leaving the wife dead & the daughter in a coma. Bronson then cruises the streets & parks of New York blasting nasty people to death.
In The Brave One, Erica Bain (Foster) is the victim herself, & her boyfriend is murdered, in Central Park one night. Once recovered she buys a gun & goes around blasting nasty people to death. As in Death Wish, the leading investigator soon figures out who the vigilante is & doesn't make any attempt to arrest her. So yes, alll so familiar.
But I enjoyed it, I thought it was superbly produced & directed, & Foster as always does a great job in carrying a movie on her own. She's done it many times before & she still cuts it. It's not completely predictable, to be fair, & it does take some interesting directions, but ultimately it satisfies because it touches the nerve that is so central to the human psyche: the thirst for vengeance. In this respect, it hits the button repeatedly & you might find yourself muttering 'YES, that's the way to do it' after she fires her gun. Simple but effective, & for anyone new to this specific genre, great entertainment.
Unfortunately it does raise questions about the glorification of guns in movies, & how killing someone can make you a hero. In Britain we have a growing problem with street killings, not alll by way of a gun but this film won't act as a deterrent, that's for sure.
A film that is,nt really brave enough to follow it,s own convictions - By: russell clarke, 14 Jun 2008 
Film's about vigilantism generallly go one of two ways. They are either revel in the bad guys taking a pounding -which can be great fun- or they blur the moral boundaries between the villains & the (anti) hero so the audience questions the whole premise. The Brave One curiously attempts to straddle these two disparate approaches & ends up with a mixed message that not only might confuse the audience but definitely confuses one of it's main characters.
New York radio show host Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) has a show callled Walk The City where she records the city's ambient sounds & waxes eloquently on her love for the place. She is also madly in love with her doctor fiancé (Naveen Edwards) We know this because they spend every second they are together mooning over each other in that rather sickening way madly in love couples do. When they are out walking their dog in Central Park one evening they are accosted by a group of thugs, things escalate rapidly into violence & he is put in a coma & on waking three weeks later Erica finds out that he has died & furthermore she has missed the funeral.
Finding she views the city she formerly loved with suspicion, the police ineffective & living in permanent fear Erica illegallly purchases a gun & in one of those coincidences that could only happen in a movie is immediately involved in an armed robbery at a convenience store & blasts her way amateurishly out of the situation. Finding she likes the empowerment that the gun gives her she goes on a vigilante killing spree.
Detective Mercer (Terrence Howard)the cop callled in on her original shooting intuitively realises that the murders are committed by the same person (Though the forensic evidence helps) but he doesn't realise it's a woman -though through a series of interviews with Erica for her radio show they form a tentative relationship leading to a culminating decision that undermines everything that the audience has seen before.
Watching miscellaneous low-life's getting the bullet , literallly, is hugely satisfying in that i know it's only a film type of way & the performances are good enough to carry it off for most of the narrative. Erica is conflicted , we hear that in her radio show voice over's , see it in Foster's agonised expression, & the script echoes that conflict. Is director Neil Jordan through making a technicallly proficient compelling movie condemning Erica's action because if he is the ease with which she carries out her spree & the films preposterous denouement say otherwise? If he is condoning her actions then why alll the hand wringing torment?
What could have been a compelling intelligent exposition on how one person deals with the loss of a loved one in a mindless violent incident loses it way badly .The Brave One fails ironicallly because it doesn't bite the bullet & take the audience one way or the other, though I feel it wants to say vigilantism works. And the title is badly misjudged. Erica is not brave especiallly ...she is just extremely p***ed off. But The P***ed Off One wouldn't make a great film title.....would it?
Old story well done - By: Ms. Srah A. Townsend, 03 Jun 2008 You have seen this film before, Ms Foster survives a cowardly & brutal attack & then turns vigilante. The cop following the bloody trail becomes to suspect her via her radio broadcasts on New York city life. However, The two main characters are well played & the scenes & sounds of New York evocative & emotional. Jodie Foster is superb in handling a decent script. But the plot is predictable & streches credulity, especiallly when Jodie Foster tackles a crime boss. All in alll worth a watch.
