Death Wish

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Poe W Apr 23, 2019 Death Wish (2018): 6 out of 10: Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) is a surgeon with a lovely wife (Elisabeth Shue) and daughter (Camila Morrone). This being a movie called Death Wish after about twenty minutes the wife is dead, and the daughter is in a coma from a botched robbery. Next thing you know Bruce Willis is both hunting down the perpetrators of the home invasion and giving other scum a taste of their own medicine in the bloody streets of Chicago. Death Wish is a bit of a strange bird. It is nowhere near as awful as critics made it out to be, but it is undoubtedly a disappointment from what you would expect with the phrase Death Wish directed by Eli Roth. The Good: There are a lot of little touches that add up in this film. The way the criminals target Willis for the house robbery is very well done. The whole relationship between Willis and his brother (Vincent D'Onofrio) belongs in a better movie. Also, Death Wish is a well-directed movie from a pure keeping the camera on the action and in focus kind of way. There is also some subtle humor peeking around the corner. Willis visits a gun shop that almost seems a cheerful parody of such things and one of the kill scenes is more Loony Tunes with a Rube Goldberg bowling ball than a straightforward action scene. Where does this rank among Death Wish films?: I am not sure if this belongs under The Bad or a different category, so I am sticking it here. The Death Wish remake is remarkably restrained. Very restrained for an Eli Roth movie and extremely restrained for a Death Wish movie. Nether Kersey's wife or daughter are raped, (A mainstay for the Death Wish series which some critics have hilariously taken to calling a tradition. As if it was your aunt's candied yams with raisins at Thanksgiving ) and the killings are, with one exception, nothing you wouldn't see on an episode of The Shield. Now I am not sure this is a bad thing. I highly doubt that the box office was inundated with people demanding their money back because there was no Elizabeth Shue rape scene. On the other hand, it really makes it more of a generic revenge movie than the bonkers exploitation that defines the first three Death Wish movies. I just can't see myself watching this again. I will watch Death Wish 3 every time I stumble across it. The original Death Wish has Jeff Goldblum as a murdering rapist dressed as if he was trying out for an audition for The Warriors. Death Wish 2 is a wildcard as some days I think it is the greatest exploitation film ever. Other days I think it is a stain on our society (The I Spit on Your Grave conundrum). The Bad: Bruce Willis is okay in the movie. I think he was miscast. I know he has spent the last few years hanging out with Nicholas Cage and John Cusack in some sort of DTV hell traveling from Mobile Alabama, to Pittsburg PA, and then to Slovenia to put in his ten-minute cameo as bank president, evil bank president, and neighbor with the gun collection. So it's good to see him in a film where his costar isn't from Felicity. I think that the filmmakers missed an opportunity to cast against type for the role. Now, of course, your dream casting would be Tom Hanks dressed in a Mister Rogers sweater. Jeff Goldblum from the original Death Wish would have been another brilliant piece of stunt casting. If you want to go younger, Harry Styles would be an inspired choice. We have seen Bruce Willis do this a thousand times (The film initially had Liam Neeson connected to it which would have been even worse) A reboot like this needs a fresh take. Few things get my goat faster in a film then when the characters actions are debated on local media. It's the kind of thing you expect in an Adam Sandler movie or a Romantic Comedy (The whole city is talking about the wedding proposal that was a bust but first genocide in Rwanda). The endless talk radio bits with Mancow and some others are over the top. If Chicago is such a crime-ridden city why would the shooting of two criminals by a white guy in a hoodie even get traction? It wasn't like he was dressed as the Easter bunny. The Ugly: You know some movie critics are going to have to explain what they were talking about. This film was greeted with the kind of vitriol one usually reserves for a Kurt Cameron movie called A Day without Jews. It's a crime revenge film â" a competent one. There has not exactly been a lack of these over the years. It is a form of urban western. Death Wish is remarkably toned down from the original source. (Can you imagine someone releasing Death Wish 2 in theaters today?). As for politics, I am not sure what Death Wish has to do with school shootings or police violence. No schools are shot, and no police shoot their firearms in this movie. Does the film glorify guns and vigilante violence? Yes, it does much as Godzilla films glorify giant monsters stomping cities. It is a fantasy movie. Most people can separate movies from real life. In reality, though Death Wish is an action film that is barely an exploitation film and indeed not the bloodstained act of violence individual members of the critic media strangely painted it as. In Conclusion: For a Death Wish film from Eli Roth, it surprisingly has little of what makes either Death Wish Films or Eli Roth movies interesting. See more

Ron R Apr 20, 2019 OH MY GOD. I loved this movie. Great action revenge flick with some hilarious kills. Bruce Willis in top form. Yet oddly the "critics" only give it 17%. Clearly some people have a disdain and hatred of the 2nd Amendment. What a bunch of cucked limp wristed liberal soy boy pansies you all are! LMAO!!! See more

Abraham G Apr 18, 2019 Unwatchable in the age of Trump, for anyone with a conscience. All the bad guys were brown people, Latinos specifically.

Luke R Apr 16, 2019 It's not a bad film in the slightest. If the critics can't look past their political views and enjoy a movie for what it is then that's their problem. See more

Abraham P Apr 5, 2019 Don't listen to the critics. This is an excellent film about a buttoned-up, rational, loving, man who lives life by the rules, trusts authority, and does what he's supposed to do. Then, a robbery goes wrong and he's left with a world of pain. He can't understand how he could live a perfect life and still have such tragedy. Bruce Willis plays the part perfectly and the rest of the cast supports him well. There's some good action, but that's not the point of this film. It's about good people not standing idly by while others do evil. It's about standing up instead of lying down. The film walks a careful tightrope as it makes plainly obvious the risk and potential tragedy that accompany the doctor's decision to go vigilante. The critics who say this is a pro-gun film are completely missing the point. It would be the exact same movie with a baseball bat or a tire iron or a kitchen knife. The gun is just a tool for a citizen who realizes we are all responsible for the society we live in and decides to do something about it. See more

Rey W Apr 2, 2019 Bruce Willis is true to his years of the guys who overcomes the odds. Very entertaining and an instant classic of a classic! I hope he makes a DW2..I also liek that its a great example of how out of touch professional reviewers are versus the audience. See more

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Death Wish

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