Death Wish II

*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.

Another callback from the first picture to let you know it’s the same universe is the amount of unexpected help Kersey gets.  The everyday folks that happen to cross paths with the sonuvabitch when he’s working think of him as a hero.  Witnesses to his crimes refuse to cooperate with the cops because they want him to continue.  Again, it’s ridiculous luck that so many people are willing to look the other way for this guy.

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.

With that said it’s also a dumber movie.  I mean Kersey goes to get ice cream and out of nowhere winds up in an alley knife fight with some guy.  What the fuck is happening?  How did we get here?  And in another scene he impersonates a doctor to break into a hospital so he can attack one of the rapists.  He’s using disguises now?  He made a fake ID badge and everything?  Wow.

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.