The Brave One (2007)

My Rating : ****

MovieStudio Quote >> “Realistic and Thrilling  journey of a common woman”

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 Brave One

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 The fear that had once paralyzed her has been replaced by something else…something that drives her to reclaim the life that was taken from her that night…something that Erica does not even recognize in herself.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.

The Brave One

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.

Splinter (2006)

My Rating : ***.5

A fatal drive-by shooting triggers a brutal gang war in this suspenseful urban drama. As the body count rises, a corrupt police detective (Tom Sizemore, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) investigates. It appears that the conflict on the streets may… A fatal drive-by shooting triggers a brutal gang war in this suspenseful urban drama. As the body count rises, a corrupt police detective (Tom Sizemore, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) investigates.

splinter

It appears that the conflict on the streets may mask the workings of a serial killer. The key to stopping the bloodshed may lie in the fractured memories of Dreamer, a young witness wounded in the initial shooting. Edward James Olmos (AMERICAN ME) also stars.