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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Brave One, The
Warner Bros. Pictures


6.7

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 49 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for strong violence, language and some sexuality

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

New York radio host Erica Bain has a life that she loves and a fiancé she adores. But all of it is taken from her when a brutal attack leaves Erica badly wounded and her fiancé dead. Unable to move past the tragedy, Erica begins prowling the city streets at night to track down the men she holds responsible. Her dark pursuit of justice catches the public's attention, and the city is riveted by her anonymous exploits. But with the NYPD desperate to find the culprit and a dogged police detective hot on her trail, she must decide whether her quest for revenge is truly the right path or if she is becoming the very thing she is trying to stop. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Crime \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Bruce A. Taylor (& story) Roderick Taylor (& story) Cynthia Mort
DIRECTED BY:	Neil Jordan
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 5, 2008 Theatrical: September 14, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	119 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / Australia

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Not since "The Crying Game" has Jordan crafted as compelling a motion picture.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Where did Hollywood get the conviction that audiences demand an ending that lets them off the hook? Foster doesn't let herself off the hook in The Brave One, and we should be as brave as she is.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

An intense New York-set thriller that manages to be both commercial and contemplative, kick-ass and quietly, disturbingly insinuating.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

The moody tone and carefully balanced drama turn a grubby premise into something unexpectedly elegant.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The way-too-neat ending of The Brave One especially strains credulity, but it's worth watching for Foster's fiercely arresting performance.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The Brave One is "Death Wish" with a guilty conscience, and while it may be a bit of a hypocrite as vigilante thrillers go, the internal contradictions of the thing make for a very interesting picture.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's hard to hate, because as a rabble-rouser it is superbly effective, driven forward by two powerhouse actors.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

A vigilante drama boasting a powerful Jodie Foster performance and carefully weighted direction by Neil Jordan.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Taken literally, almost everything that follows in The Brave One so seriously strains credibility (even by the standards of the genre) as to enter the realm of the absurd. Taken on the level of a menacing urban fairy tale, however--something akin to what Jane Campion was aiming for with "In the Cut"--it's strangely fascinating.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

There's a lot to admire in The Brave One. It just doesn't cut as deeply as it needs to.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

A confounding movie on many levels. For all its sophistication and sensitivity, it turns out to be little more than an upscale B-movie about getting even.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Andy Spletzer

With The Brave One, Jodie Foster and director Neil Jordan shift the genre to the murky left, where right and wrong are not so black and white. In doing so, they have taken away the very thing that makes a vigilante movie work.

USA Today Claudia Puig

If only The Brave One had captured more of the complex nature of the fear and paranoia plaguing society since 9/11. Instead, it is a well-made but predictable take on the revenge fantasy thriller, with a female twist.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Regardless of the artistry involved (though the street-level anxiety of post-9/11 New York is far better evoked in Jane Campion's underrated "In the Cut," The Brave One ultimately never really strays from the same moral low road as "Death Wish."

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Foster is electrifying as ego and id clash and the movie fires up with genuine provocation.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Not enough to overcome the proven axiom that although you can make a bad movie from a good script, you can't make a good one from a bad one.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The movie itself isn't nearly as interesting as whatever it is Foster is trying to work out for its two hours.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

As far as its plot mechanics go, The Brave One belongs to the hallowed (if less-than-respectable) genre of exploitative revenge pictures.

Empire William Thomas

It wants to be a modern "Taxi Driver"; it manages to be the new Falling Down, with Foster as fierce as ever.

Variety Justin Chang

Foster’s pistol-packing turn as an avenging dark angel nearly sustains director Neil Jordan’s grim vigilante drama through a string of implausibilities and occasionally trite psychological framing devices, with deft support from Terrence Howard as a sympathetic cop.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Everything about Foster's ocular intensity is riveting, but little in this hushed vigilante drama makes sense.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

As the film builds toward a ludicrous finale, it poses a question: Foster is a far better actor than Charles Bronson, and Jordan a much better director than Michael Winner, so why is The Brave One so much less satisfying than "Death Wish"?

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

At the film's inconclusive conclusion, the filmmakers strand Erica and Sean in the moral twilight.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

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."

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The whole thing turns into trash with flash.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard are incredibly compelling and hold your attention despite Jordan's deliberately slow pacing.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Formulaic and creaky as a Harrison Ford action sequence, but sufficiently gussied up with good actors and a decent director so that you don’t entirely mind.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Don’t be fooled. The Brave One, though well cast and smoothly directed, is just as crude and ugly as you want it to be.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Foster’s feminist victimization complex seems to be looping around to meet Nixon and Agnew. Next she’ll be hunting Commies for the FBI.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

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.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The end result, at best, is high-toned pulp.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The drama is repetitive rather than resonant, an over-calculated, under-ventilated studio production -- even paranoid thrillers need to breathe -- whose plot machinery grinds grim and coarse.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The film moves from cliché to cliché and hemorrhages blood and logic at an alarming rate.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 49 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tony B. gave it a6:
Jodie Foster, one of our more intelligent performers, is electrifying in this urban thriller. The sometimes too active cinematography gets in the way, and the pacing, especially in the beginning, needs to be picked up a notch or two..The ending is difficult to believe.

Rock F. gave it a3:
Yawn. I love Jodie Foster, but what was she thinking when she signed on for this dud? It starts out promisingly enough, but once she's packing heat, she stumbles into one bloodbath after another. Lame.

Philip H. gave it a2:
Confused is the only word that come to mind.

Jon F. gave it a6:
Pretty good, not a keeper. Slow throughout, ending suprised us. Good to watch - don't buy.

Chad S. gave it a7:
Nicole(Jane Adams) is only kidding when she refers to Erica's public display of affection towards David(Naveen Andrews), a man descended from Indians, as being "disgusting". The art gallery owner has an ironical lilt in her voice; she doesn't really hate her friend's coupling instinct to hug and kiss, after all, Nicole is east coast, a sophisticate, a card-carrying member of the intellentsia. Inter-racial relationships aren't supposed to freak her out. But not all walks of life share the same live-and-let-live mentality practiced by the broad-minded; for some, the very sight of a non-white male with his non-white hands all over a white female's body, is disgusting, sans italics. When "The Brave One" cross-cuts the couple's lovemaking with their savage beating, a correlation of cause-and-effect is made. They're being punshied. But by who? During the attack, no mention is made about either person's ethnicity by the perpetrators. The crime might not be racially motivated. But there's an inherent assumption by the audience that it is. The depiction of on-screen coital relations between racial disparates are relatively rare in mainstream film, so the editing has an unintended(or intended) effect of punishing the couple for engaging in physical love. As if "The Brave One" wasn't provocative enough, a cynic would suggest that David had to be non-white as a sort of license for Erica(Jodie Foster) to shoot black people in cold blood. She's not a racist because David was non-white. "The Brave One" isn't a racist film because Detective Mercer(Terrence Howard) is black. But what about you? Are you a racist?

Frank M. gave it an8:
Foster raises this revenge film to another level. She refuses to do the "bad ass" schtick and makes you really feel her loss, pain and rage.

Austin C. gave it a9:
This movie was great. You can see it on Comcast ON DEMAND for $4.99, I definitely recommend it.

Brave One, The Warner Bros. Pictures

Brave One, The
Warner Bros. Pictures