*There’s gonna be some spoilers for Death Wish I
In the immortal words of A-number-one badass John McClane: how can the same shit happen to the same guy twice? After getting away scot-free on committing multiple homicides Paul Kersey (Charlie Bronson (Mr. Majestyk)) moves out to LA and is still working as an architect. He transferred his daughter (Robin Sherwood (Blow Out)) too so they can be together. She’s never gotten over the incident in NYC and remains silent and detached from the world. But goddammit, some muggers randomly pick Kersey out of the clear blue to fuck with. What are the odds?If you can believe it the assault on Kersey’s housekeeper (Silvana
Gallardo (Days of Our Lives)) and daughter is actually worse than what
Jeff Goldblum and crew did in the original.
Not only do the home invaders gang rape and beat the housekeeper but
they end up killing her too. Then they
kidnap the daughter, rape her and she ends up throwing herself out of a window
and getting impaled by the metal fence below.
Jesus.
Where this picture departs from its predecessor is instead
of taking his fury out on random criminals Kersey decides to track down the
specific people who destroyed his family.
He leads a double life at night by renting a shitty room in a sleazy
part of town and dressing down to blend in with his surroundings. He doesn’t have any info to go on besides his
memory of their faces but manages to find his targets in a matter of days
simply by walking the streets. However,
there’s some collateral damage as he kills a bunch of dudes not on his list
because they stand in the way of completing his mission.
Amazingly there’s some fallout from the cops letting Kersey
go in NYC. When the New York police get
wind of vigilante activity that sounds similar to what they experienced they
send the detective who was on the case out to check in on Kersey. It’s only through tons of incredible luck
(sorta too complicated to explain here) that the impending shitstorm doesn’t
come crashing down on Kersey’s head.
Still, I’ll give credit for following through on this lose end.
And with the inclusion of the east coast police we can tick
off corrupt cops on the Death Wish essentials checklist. That’s not to say the LA boys are entirely
off the hook. They’re total dicks to any
victim who gets shot, innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire and genuine
criminals. They lean on them hard for
info while they’re bleeding and in pain and refuse them medical care. I get that they’re passionate and pissed off
but that’s not cool.
Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix) picks up the series
trend of showcasing a young actor in an early role as a gang member. When he plays a bad guy he hams it up and
looks like he’s having a good time. In
this and King of New York he has this undeniable swagger of “I’m the
baddest, I’m the smoothest, what the fuck you gonna do about it?”
Ultimately this film is more satisfying than the
original. It follows a more typical
revenge story outline with the protagonist taking down the particular people
who smashed his life to bits. There’s a
clear arc and a better build up and release.
Plus the deaths hit pretty hard too with an amped up gunshot sound and
violent convulsing of the victims. These
are absolutely horrible people that you want to see get annihilated.
Comparable to how the ending of the original kind of almost
definitely ruins the movie they pull some shit here as well. Now that Kersey has started killing again he
can’t stop. These five assholes who
raped and slaughtered his housekeeper and daughter were just the
beginning. He needs to feed his
bloodlust by continuing to roam the streets at night and murdering others he
deems not worthy to live anymore. Are
you fucking kidding me Paul Kersey? STOP
DOING THAT!
Oh and the Jimmy Page score of bellowing, wallowing, effects
heavy guitar and clicking glass bottles is terrible.
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