Rated R – 1h40 -

Just as much as Mel Gibson knows how to shoot his mouth off in the worst ways…he can also do just the opposite and make a really exciting action-thriller. This is one of them.

In the oddly named Edge Of Darkness, Tom Craven (Gibson) is a Boston Detective, whose adult daughter is murdered on her return home. Craven begins to put the pieces together to uncover a deeper conspiracy that proves to be a challenge to unfold.

High marks go out to our bad guy in this one. I won’t spoil who are what they are, but they are evil. They are double evil. The only way they could be worse is if they were peering out the castle tower window, tenting their fingers and delivering a low-toned bwahh-ha ha ha haaaa.

I wouldn’t justify Gibson’s acting performance here as a justification for his notable harsh words, but he does great work creating likeable characters. Tom Craven is just, honest and vengeful, like you expect a clean Boston cop to be.

Mel Gibson seems to be at his best when he plays a cop hell bent on finding the truth. seasoned few actors such as Clint Eastwood, who can enter their golden years on screen with more style than Georgio Armani.

It’s hard not to think of The Departed while watching this one considering all the similar connections. I think that’s Notably older than his Lethal Weapon mainstay, I wondered while watching this if he’s turning into the OK, because this isn’t trying to copy Martin Scorsese, it’s just got a similar background.

In any case this is probably the best flick in 2010 so far.