The Brave One

This is a female version of the Charles Bronson movie, Death Wish (1974). I happen to love the movie Death Wish and I love this movie as well. Let it be known that I'm a huge huge huge Jodie Foster fan even before I knew Jodie Foster's name.

In Death Wish, a man's wife is killed and he becomes a vigilante to get revenge. He puts himself in places and situations where people will try to mug and attack him, then he shoots them dead.

In The Brave One, a woman's fiancee is killed and she becomes a vigilante to get revenge. She puts herself in places and situations where people will try to mug and attack her then she shoots them dead.

It also reminded me of the real life story of Bernie Getz who shot 4 black teenagers on a New York subway. Bernie had been mugged many times and decided to protect himself and get revenge on anyone who harassed him. Many considered the sub-way vigilante a hero and in fact, Bernie is mentioned in this movie. This movie also happens to be in New York city where Death Wish was also filmed.

But even though this movie is a female Death Wish and imitates what happened with Bernie Getz, it is its own movie meaning it has elements and plot devices that make it unique.

I grew up with Jodie Foster ... literally. She is my age. Here she is in an ABC After School Special which I remember.


She was all over TV in shows like Disneyland (always watched), Adam-12 (always watched), My Three Sons (watched sometimes), The Courtship of Eddie's Father (always watched), Gunsmoke (watched sometimes), Bonanaza (watched sometimes), Ironside (watched sometimes), Kung Fu (which I watched) and The Partridge Family (which I also watched) as well as in being various ABC After School Specials.

You get the idea but the movie that really put Jodie Foster on my radar was The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1979) which I saw on TV as reruns. Although I've watched that movie a half-dozen times, I have never seen the start of the movie. I always caught it somewhere around the middle and was amazed at the kid about my age who acted like an adult and could handle adult situations. She was also very clever and cool under pressure. I looked up to Jodie Foster and yet at the time, I didn't know her name. For some strange reason, that movie has never been available on DVD.

I didn't see Tax Driver (1976) until I was in college and she gained some notoriety playing a 13 year old hooker although by my calculation she was actually 14 or 15 in real life.


Then in 1981, John Hinckley tried to assassinate President Reagan to prove to Jodie Foster that he loved her. Somehow that had a negative impact on her career for the next 10 years but she finally made a come back with the unforgettable classic, The Silence of the Lambs.

Six years later she was in Contact (1997) and once again, she was amazing. Panic Room (2002) was also mesmerizing. She was in Flightplan (2005) which I enjoyed.


I missed Inside Man (2006) but it looks amazing. Any Spike Lee join with Denzel Washington is automatically by default a great movie.

Because I saw The Brave One in Malaysia, it was censored. I was a bit annoyed because key scenes were removed leaving me wondering "what the hell just happened???" They usually remove any obscenities and yet they left in "Super-Cunt" which is said several times in one scene. I have to laugh when this happens because I figure the person doing the censoring doesn't know what it means.

Terrence Howard (below left) stars as the police investigator who falls in love with Jodie. For a while there were two stories and I wondered how they were going to intersect. It's interesting how the lives of these two people cross. Terrence Howard reminded me a lot of Forest Whitaker who starred with Jodie in The Panic Room.

Forest Whitaker in Panic Room

I'm not saying they look the same. I'm saying that Howard had a similar way about him that reminded me of Whitaker.

Naveen Andrews who I remember as Sayid in Lost, plays Jodie's fiancee. I didn't recognize him at first. He definitely plays a different type of character that we see in Lost. The guy has some range. Strangely enough when I do a search for all cast members common in Lost and The Brave One, some other guys name comes up whom I don't even recognize.


There were some strains on my ability to believe for example a short time after Jodie gets a gun, she finds herself in two back to back situations where her life in danger and she uses the gun to protect herself by killing. These give her a taste of what it is like to shoot a gun and kill someone.

The second time is confronted by two black guys in the New York subway (think Bernie Getz). She has every right to shoot the guy who is holding the big-ass scary knife to her throat but she also shoots his friend who is just standing there watching. There are no witnesses to the shooting but if there were, I wonder how a jury would decide that second shooting.

After Bernie Getz shot the 4 teens he went back and shot at least one of them again even though they were down. He just wanted to make sure they stayed down. Did he have a right to shoot someone who wasn't a threat at that point even though they could be a threat in the near future after they recover from the first shot?

The interesting thing about this movie the concept of taking the law into your own hands and getting revenge on those people who stole your life from you.

I've watched too many episodes of CSI to know that it would not be too hard for forensics to find her. I would tell you why but it would spoil the ending.

I thought Jodie Foster had "jumped the shark" in Flightplan but now I'm thinking she has at least 20 years of good movies to come. I look forward to growing old with Jodie.

This is a second remake of the 1956 movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.



The first remake followed 22 years later in 1978 and had the same name. This remake follows 29 years after that one and is simply called The Invasion.

The 1978 version had a cameo from Kevin McCarthy who was the star of the original film. The pic below is Kevin McCarthy from the 1978 version but to be funny, someone Photoshopped this pic so that he is black-and-white just to emphasize that he is original 1956 black-and-white version.



The 2007 version has a main character who was also a main character in the 1978 version. The character Nancy is played by Veronica Cartwright. I'm sure there will be another remake in 25 years and perhaps Nicole Kidman or Daniel Craig will have a cameo or starring role. According to imdb.com, Veronica Cartwright has been quite busy in mostly in TV shows. I just realized that she was in Alien in 1979 which I also saw and which also scared the crap out of me. I never connected those two performances as the same person. I saw her in The Right Stuff, Flight of the Navigator and The Witches of Eastwick. I don't remember her in Kinsey and the TV show CSI but I probably saw her without thinking making the connection. She is very recognizable so I'll be sure to look out for her in the future.

I'm a big fan of the original although I've only seen it on TV as a kid growing up. Then I saw the 1978 version in the theatre when I was 14. It scared the crap out of me. After the movie I was walking thru the parking lot at night with my friend Steve, heading to the Burger King, and suddenly Steve stops while I'm talking and I keep walking. I get about 10 feet and turn around and he gives me that look like he's one of them. Then he slowly raises his finger and points at me and imitates the final scene of the 1978 movie. Then he proceeds to make the growling squealing noise the "invaded" make. That freaked me out pretty good. It was a good scare. Props to you buddy!



Here is Veronica Cartwright (below) reaction to Donald Sutherland (above). I don't think I freaked quite this much.



Here is Veronica Cartwright in Alien a year later.



Unfortunately I missed the first 10 minutes of the movie. Here in Malaysia when they say the movie stars at 2 pm, it starts at 2 pm. The commercials and previews run before that. In the US, the commercials and previews would start at 2 pm and the movie might actually start at 2:20 pm so you have some time. I like that. So I missed how the world got infected in the first place. I think it had something to do with something brought back from the Space Shuttle.

The main difference is that there were no pods so no "Pod People". In the other versions, if you fell asleep close to a Pod, then a Pod person would be created.


They would be born and you would disappear somehow crumbling into dust basically. In the 1956 version this process took many hours. In the 1978 version it happened much faster. As a pod person you are born naked of course, hence the full-frontal nudity scene in the 1978 version. Of course being 14, I remember those bobbling breasts quite vividly as she walked naked and pointed. I read some Trivia that they filmed that scene with her naked and the same scene with her wearing clothes so when it was shown on TV, they used the clothed version as seen in this pic below. I honestly did try to find the naked pic but failed. Maybe if I joined Mr. Skin, they might have it.




In the 2007 version, you can get infected via saliva. The aliens basically spit in your drink to infect you and the next time you go into REM sleep, your DNA changes and you become one of them. The process takes several hours.

The infected have the ability to spray some kind of green goo from their mouths into your face to infect you. Those that are found to be immune are killed. Her son gets captured by the infected and try to infect him but he is immune. Most of the movie is about her trying to rescue her son.

I had learned about this movie by seeing a review on the Totally Rad Show Podcast. That was the only review I saw before seeing this movie and those 3 guys did not like it very much. I was fond of the first two movies so I had to see this movie and I've been a fan of Nicole Kidman ever since I saw her in Dead Calm in 1989. I followed that with Days of Thunder and Far and Away and Eyes Wide Shut, all with Tom Cruise. I also saw her in Batman Forever, The Peacemaker, Cold Mountain, The Stepford Wives and Bewitched.

Although I'm a huge fan of the new James Bond with Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (2006), I did not recognize him in his role in this movie.

I don't want to spoil the ending for you but let me just say that it ends differently than the first two and I was disappointed with that. I want to say more but I would spoil it. The ending just seemed too neat and easy. And the guys in the Totally Rad Show were right when they said that she kept getting into binds where it looked like there was no way out, and yet she manages to escape each time.

There is also a scene where she is confronted by her husband and about 6 other people, all who have been converted. She has a gun which she took from the police officer while he was transforming. They could easily take her down if they all jump her at once. At most she could kill one or two of them but instead they just stand there and come at her one at a time. She shoots each of them dead until it's just her husband and she can't kill him so she shoots him in the knee. Not believable.



This remake was OK. The first one is a classic and the second one is quite scary but this third one just takes it a new direction that I didn't appreciate. It tried to give it a modern spin which is understandable. It makes more sense that your DNA would be altered instead of some kind of Pod transformation.

The most interesting thing about the movie is whether the world would be a better place if we were all "pod people". At the start of the movie you see there is a lot of turmoil in the world but as the world gets infected, peace begins to settle over the world. The world becomes a better place. And as they explained, they would eliminate hunger, poverty, hardship, conflict, etc.

But what the movie did not answer is what we lose. Would we lose our ambition to invent and create? Would we stagnate as a race never progressing but merely existing? If that is the case, then I would not any part of that world.

But assuming that the invaded could still be ambitious and progress the human race, then come invade me now. I'm all for it.

Before I can get into the movie review of Knocked Up, I just want to use this opportunity to say that I'm a big fan of everything Judd Apatow does. He acts, writes, produces and directs. He wrote and directed Knocked Up. The leading man is Seth Rogan, whom I never expected to be the lead in any movie but he pulled it off. Seth Rogan was also good in other Judd Apatow films and TV like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Freaks and Geeks. I did an imdb.com search and found that he was also in two TV episodes of Undeclared. According to my search results, he was only in three TV episodes of Freaks and Geeks. I remember him being in every episode. I guess he made a strong impression on me.

I just learned from imdb.com that Seth Rogan was a co-writer for Superbad and Judd Apatow is the Producer.

It seemed like Judd Apatow simply grabbed actors from other movies and TV shows he did to assemble this. There were actors from TV shows Undeclared and Freaks and Geeks as well as movies The 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad and probably many others. I've done the research but I give up. It's too complicated. The web he weaves of actors he uses is quite complicated as you will soon find out.

I mention a lot of people's names in this review so there are their pictures for reference.

Judd Apatow



Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen in Knocked Up



Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd in The 40 Year Old Virgin



Jay Baruchel in Undeclared



Jonah Hill and Michael Cerra in Superbad



Martin Starr, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel in Knocked Up.



Steve Carell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin



Justin Long as the Mac (right) from Apple's PC vs Mac commercials.



I recognized a lot of people in this movie but it took me awhile before I could figure out where I had seen them before. The leading woman, Katherine Heigl, looked familiar but only now do I know that I have seen her before on the TV show Grey's Anatomy thanks to imdb.com.



She reminds me a little of Amy Smart, whom would have been great in this roll as well.



Katherine Heigl is one of the only "fresh faces" in this movie since this is her first time working with Judd Apatow (thank you imdb.com).



I recognized Paul Rudd from The 40 Year Old Virgin which is written and directed by Judd Apatow.

I recognize Jay Baruchel from Undeclared (far left below) which is co-Directed by Judd Apatow.



I recognize Jason Segel (bottom right in Undeclared) from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, both Judd Apatow TV shows.

I did not recognize Martin Starr but according to imdb.com, he worked with Judd Apatow on Freaks and Geeks and he looked very Geeky. In Knocked Up he tries to grow his beard for a year so you can't really see his face. You probably would not recognize him anyway because the guy is amazing at morphing from a Geek to a Stud and anything in between. He's not someone who will get typecast.

Jonah Hill I recognized and according to imdb.com, was in I Heart Huckabees, Click and The 40 Year Old Virgin (Judd Apatow movie) but I don't remember him in those. He is starring in Superbad (finally got his own movie too! Superbad is produced by Judd Apatow) which I'm dying to see, but not in Malaysia or any other country which censors their movies. The first time I saw Jonah Hill was in Accepted where he screams like a girl when a dead body falls from the ceiling. He was also good in Evan Almighty as the "know everything" intern.

The other star in Superbad, Michael Cerra, will also be acting in a future produced Judd Apatow movie named Year One, so Judd Apatow continues the tradition of re-using his actors. I wonder if we will ever see Katherine Heigl again in a movie written, directed and/or produced by Judd Apatow. I have this feeling she is too beautiful to be re-used. He tends to re-use the more interesting looking people.

Speaking of The 40 Year Old Virgin, the star of that movie, Steve Carell, makes a camio as himself in Knocked Up. He does a good job at acting like he's being himself instead of a character which I imagine must be hard.

Judd Apatow obviously likes to re-use the same actors over and over for his movies. This is actually pretty cool in that it gives his movies a familiar feel to them.

You know the guy in those Apple Commercials that plays the part of Apple? His name is Justin Long and he starred in Accepted (not a Judd Apatow film) but he was in the movie Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, which went straight to video and was produced by Judd Apatow productions. Paul Rudd and Steve Carell were also in that. Oh so many connections! Justin Long is also in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, co-written by Judd Apatow, which will be released for Christmas 2007.

Someone needs to create a flow-chart or map showing the Judd Apatow universe and all the connections of the actors he re-uses and how they relate to each other.

OK, onto the review.

My main problem was that I saw this movie in Malaysia where they censor movies big-time! The F-word is cut along with sex and drug use. There must have been over 100 cuts in this movie! This was worse than watching the movie Miami Vice which was cut to pieces because of the F-word, sex and drug use. It's not just seeing sex or seeing people doing drugs, they also censor people talking about sex or talking about drugs. They did miss one F-word which the character spoke in a funny voice so if you're not a native English speaker, you might miss it.

I had seen the un-rated movie previews online so it was funny to see them all cut up … actually un-funny because part of the humor is lost when Ben first learns Alison is pregnant. His first reaction is totally cut out because he uses vulgarity and it was the funniest part!

Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up



Compare these two sentences

Censored: Hey, I have a really good idea. Why don't the two of you get into your time machine, go back in time each other.

Uncensored: Hey, I have a really good idea. Why don't the two of you get into your time machine, go back in time and fuck each other.

Obviously the uncensored one is funnier. Actually the next line is the funniest which is "Who needs a time machine?"

The thing I like about Judd Apatow films is that they explore real life situations with humor. He had a great write up Wired Magazine back in June. One of the themes explored in Knocked Up is "should a couple accept each other the way they are or try to change each other"? The movie explores the goals we have for our life versus the curve balls that life throws us. Can two people who are very different make it work as a married couple?

I just watched some a Knocked Up Trailer and saw a scene that was not in the movie and would not have been censored. I understand that the movie is still being cut when the Trailers are released but I always feel a bit deceived when a key scene from a Trailer is missing. They often film the same scene many different ways because they are not sure what will work when the final movie is pieced together so the Trailer may contain a different version of what actually happened.

This trailer is unrated and NSFW. Many parts of this scene were cut for me for example when she says "I'm pregnant" and his reply is "Fuck off".

I think I discovered why Seth Rogan may have starred in this movie. It's because Michael Cera was the original male role but if you watch this video, it appears he and Judd Apatow didn't get along. It was a better movie with Seth Rogan anyway. They are complete opposites and that's what makes it so great. If these two people get make it work, then there's hope for the rest of us!