Edge of Darkness

Forget about Dirty Harry or Chuck Norris being your go-to tough guys when the audience wants to see some slime ball agents of evil get blown away with a vengeance. Mel "The Australian Madman" Gibson is ready to kick some booty. Do you feel lucky, mate? Do ya?

Gibson stars as Thomas Craven - a hard working Boston detective faced with the most horrifying loss you can imagine. While visiting her dear old Dad, Craven's daughter, Emma (Bojana Novakovic), is gunned down by a drive-by shooter as she exits Tom's house. Now, our hero is determined to find the killer using ANY MEANS NECESSARY (with a vengeance).

Who is the killer?

Why did he do it?

Director Martin Campbell makes Edge of Darkness evolve from decent thriller to campy revenge fantasy to overly grandiose complicated conspiracy-filled shoot 'em up, but you kind of enjoy the ride, mostly because Gibson is willing to embrace the chance to be this generation's Charles Bronson. Thomas Craven is a man who has been wronged, and we root for him as he seeks to avenge his daughter's innocent death, unless you are still angry at Gibson for Passion of the Christ, the drunk driving incident, or cheating on his wife with a Russian hottie and knocking her up (other than that, he's still a good hero, even if we don't need another hero).

Thanks to Campbell, as well as William Monohan and Andrew Bovelli (based on the TV series by Troy Kennedy-Martin), we also enjoy seeing Tom get closer and closer to the truth as he chases down every lead (with a vengeance). The team gives the audience enough mystery to keep you intrigued, while also dropping plenty of clues to let us try to figure it out along with Tom. Sure, you might get a giggle at some of the more obvious ones, but that's part of the fun.

Even as it gets campy, Edge of Darkness holds onto the audience because Gibson embraces the harder and more darkly comic side of the movie with its Tarantino-esque explosive violence and smart aleck statements. Yes, he can over do it at times (many many times), but I was willing to forgive him for the bad parts, because the good parts are entertaining.

Unfortunately, Edge of Darkness does have some obvious drawbacks. Danny Huston, playing the daughter's boss, goes a bit too weird and wacky and almost becomes a Bond-type supervillain (I wish he said, "No Mr. Gibson, I want you to die!"), which is too campy, even for this film.

Then, Campbell and the writing crew insert this silly element where Tom hears his dead daughter's voice and has interactive conversations with her. I know they put it in to make Tom more human and a sad, tragic figure, but this is not The Ghost Whisperer! This is Dirty Harry! Less talking and more blowing people away!

Edge of Darkness is good enough.

Edge of Darkness is rated R for strong bloody violence and language.