It all leads into a clearly-tested-to-death final act that actually insults and spits on its audience by doing something that runs completely against what 'The Brave One's' story and its characters have been building to. The current politically-correct environment and economic-driven decision-making constantly rear their ugly head in how predictable safe the movie plays it. You know, the need for everyone to have a backstory/reason for doing what they're doing, for the bad guys (all ethnic dudes) to be total sleazoids that unquestionably deserve to be blown away, for Erica to be conflicted and to be shown in a positive light (Foster star power?) and so on and so forth. Instead, having just rewatched it, 'The Brave One' sabotages itself at every turn by everything that's wrong with today's Hollywood environment, resulting in a safe and perfectly-bland pretend genre/exploitation movie. With Neil Jordan directing and New York City as its background 'The Brave One' should at the very least be a classically-made, big-studio genre picture like Clint Eastwood's 'Sudden Death,' but smarter.

When Terrence Howard's sympathetic cop looking into Erica's case begins to circle around her as a suspect for the vigilante killings (their scene together at a restaurant counter is awesome) you should feel scared that she'll get caught. When Erica struggles with her conflicted emotions and self-doubt we should sympathize (we do up to a point, because Jodie works hard selling it). When Foster's Erica Bain blows away some really bad guys you should be able to feel a cathartic release and get a kick from seeing a punk sucking pavement (i.e. A role-reversed remake of 'Death Wish' with Jodie Foster in the Paul Kersey role of the peaceful professional civilian that turns into a one-person vigilante force when a loved one (boyfriend Sayid from 'Lost') are turned into compost by some ruthless thugs beyond the reach of the law, 'The Brave One' should be awesome. Here is exhibit A of why the exploitation movies of decades past are awesome, and why today's movie-making environment sucks. Neil Jordan's THE BRAVE ONE (2007) on Cinemax.

The brave one cinemax