In the opening scenes of “The Brave One,” public radio host Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) laments the absence of the old Manhattan, home of gritty streets, the Plaza Hotel and dirty hotel rooms where Sid Vicious hung out after gigs. She neglects to mention the rampant crime that went along with those bygone days, a fact she is brutally reminded of later in the film when she and her fiancé (Naveen Andrews) fall victim to a violent crime.

Pointed memory lapses plague Erica and the rest of the characters in “The Brave One” throughout the movie. Ostensibly concerned with answering the question of whether revenge is a dish best served cold or not at all, “The Brave One” comes up with half-assed answers presented by characters who never seem to learn anything at all.

That’s not to say the cast, led capably by Foster and co-star Terrance Howard, and director Neil Jordan aren’t trying. “The Brave One” is a slickly produced take on a tried-and-true genre popularized decades ago by movies like “Death Wish” and “Taxi Driver.” But, in those days, vigilante movies went in one of two directions—either full-on celebrations of vigilantism, like “Death Wish,” or dark, surreal looks inside the twisted mind of the vigilante, like “Taxi Driver.”

“The Brave One” wants to have it both ways, and the result is sloppy and unconvincing. The plot is by the numbers: Out for a stroll in Central Park one night, Erica and her fiancé, David, are attacked by a group of hoods. The thugs start out by stealing the couple’s dog and end by videotaping their bloody assault on Erica and David. Three weeks later, Erica awakens from a coma and learns that David died as a result of the attack. After spending several days sequestered in her apartment, Erica ventures out, buys an illegal gun, and, after being in the wrong mini-mart at the wrong time, shoots a robber dead.

Emboldened, Erica soon places herself in harm’s way deliberately, all in an effort to lure out potential crooks and cap them. Meanwhile, she strikes up a friendship with Mercer (Howard), a homicide detective investigating the vigilante killings. Although firmly on the side of law and order, Mercer is sympathetic to the vigilante’s methods.

It’s a simple setup, and Foster and Howard do what they can with their characters. Foster is especially strong, and her transformation from scared victim to empowered gunslinger is palpable. After shooting her first bad guy, Erica initially quivers in fear over what she has done. But, seconds later, she swaggers down the street, a cigarette dangling from her lips, confident in her actions. It’s a moment that, in any other exploitation movie, would feel cool and bad-ass. But, in “The Brave One,” it feels fake and unconfident. Throughout the movie, Erica uses her radio show to discuss the merits and morals of vigilante justice. However, the discussion never moves beyond the surface of the argument, even though some references to the Iraq war are thrown in for topicality.

When a tough question is posed—such as a sequence in which Erica inadvertently maims a young prostitute while trying to rescue her from a psychopathic john—the film simply shrugs and lets Erica spout a tired cliché about not recognizing herself. Howard, meanwhile, brings a believable cynicism and weariness to his role, which is ultimately undercut during the film’s ridiculous climax. It doesn’t help that director Neil Jordan seems asleep at the camera. For all of the dialogue that tries to evoke New York City’s long-gone days as a wretched hive of scum and villainy, Jordan’s camerawork is uninteresting, and the atmosphere is generic.

There’s plenty of gore to go along with all the lazy moralizing, along with a handful of snappy one-liners that Erica tosses out before letting the bullets fly. During these scenes, “The Brave One” could easily be compared to any other exploitation flick, albeit one with a higher budget. That’s where “The Brave One” shoots itself in the foot. Too dumb to be an intelligent commentary on the question of vengeance, but too pretentious to be a full-on grindhouse shoot-’em-up, “The Brave One” instead ends up being equally frustrating and unremarkable, a crime for which the viewer ends up taking the punishment.