Reported to be Michael Caine's last major starring role Harry Brown is a disturbing look at British urban society and the horror of living on an inner city housing estate where even the police fear to tread.

The opening sequence that sets the tone for the rest of the movie shows an unseen mob riding about a park area on mopeds filming their reign of terror with a mobile phone. We see flashes of antisocial behavior including plenty of swearing, threatening behavior, drug taking, prostitution culminating in the gang riding in circles and waving a gun around a young mother with a pram. As scary as those first few scenes are, more is to come in this depressing yet all too real depiction of gang life in the UK.

Those first few minutes of mobile footage serve as an introduction to the main characters of the story. We are then introduced to Harry Brown played by Michael Caine. Harry is in his 70's and meets up everyday with his friend Leonard (David Bradley) to play chess down their local boozer. They discuss their lives each day and Leonard mentions that he gets harassed constantly by the local kids and that he feels very afraid. Through the first 30 minutes of the film we see them live out their lives and watch as they have to pass through the estate they live on to get home making sure they avoid a very violent gang who hang around the underpass outside their homes.

One day the police call on Harry to inform him that his good friend Leonard has been killed in an attack. Harry, who has recently lost his wife and who we also have learned lost his daughter many years ago now has nobody. His only friend is dead, most likely murdered. Sick of being afraid to live in his own home and with his best friend now dead he decides it is time to fight back. They could have played it like Death Wish but instead the makers kept it as real as possible never forgetting that Harry Brown is an OAP and therefore susceptible to the constraints of age if not the law. Caine plays it like a 70 year old and not once does it feel like they stretch the imagination of what a 70 year old could achieve.

Harry Brown is a bleak take on the violent life that exists in the heart of all our british cities and the pain that everyday folk go through in order to just be left alone by tearaway gangs who are less afraid of the police than the police are of them. The soundtrack is more like something out of Dawn of the Dead which compliments it very well, very haunting and sends chills up your spine when it kicks in which is quite rare. Most of the film is absent of any music, played like a documentary rather than film. During a few key scenes the auditorium I sat in was absolutely silent and as a gun shot rang out unexpectedly everyone grabbed for the safety of their arm-rests. It really draws you in and by the end you will be exhausted. I didn't buy any popcorn at this showing and I'm glad I didn't, it's not the kind of film you WANT to enjoy, it's just very very good film-making.

The performances were incredible, Caine putting in a very believable effort but the main stars were the actors playing the roles of the gang members. They had the dialogue down and I still find it hard to believe they are not really like that in real life. Very well acted. It can't be an easy job depicting the lowest form of life but they did and very well indeed.

I do have a few gripes however. There is a secondary storyline running through the film involving a female police sergeant and her male subordinate. It never really gets off the ground and there doesn't seem to be enough depth to the characters compared to the Harry vs The Gang side of the story. This part was quite weak and I thought they could have developed this a bit more, given the woman a bit more substance. This aside Harry Brown will stay in my conscience for a long time and I'm sure next time I see a group of rowdy youths his old wrinkled features will appear in my mind.

Harry Brown opens on Wednesday 11th November across the country.