Harry Brown - D

The worst film of the year for me usually combines wasting talented people with morally reprehensible material. Former worsts include Towelhead, The Mist, Kansas City, and Hannibal. Harry Brown opens with a gang initiating a new member with crack cocaine who then shoots a mother in the head as she walks her newborn in a stroller. Then things start to get ugly. An elderly member in the neighborhood (Michael Caine as the titular character) doesn't like what he sees but is not inclined to help. After his long-suffering wife dies a painful death due to cancer and his best friend is stabbed to death by the gang, he's got nothing to lose; but the audience does . . .

The most unwatchable sequence occurs when Harry tries to buy an illegal handgun at a drug dealer's place. A woman near overdose is repeatedly raped on film and the scene drags on (and on) until Harry finally dispatches the bad guys. Vengeance done well can get the blood pumping (see Braveheart), but when Harry starts his (brief) vigilante spree, it feels amoral and voyeuristic. Harry loses his way pretty quickly which is not very believable for an older, wiser man. Things aren't helped by the ineffectual cops (one played by Emily Mortimer) who are powerless, helpless, and clueless. Gritty is one thing; depressing and hopeless are something else. Worst film of the year, easy. D