Well considering what’s coming down the pike I can buy all
that. But would you believe the woman
he’s engaged to gets killed by gangsters and they kidnap her daughter? Paul Kersey’s bad fuckin’ luck is something
else man. I know I brought this up a
couple of times already during this series but I’m genuinely dumbfounded how so
much horrific shit can happen to one sonuvabitch. You could say he deserves it and that
wouldn’t necessarily be wrong seeing as he has a hard on for setting traps for
would-be criminals and murdering them on the spot without a second thought. But put that aside for a minute. Throughout the course of these films he’s suffered
the loss of his wife and his daughter, one woman he was engaged to, another
woman he was about to commit to and her daughter, his housekeeper/friend, an
old war buddy and yet another woman he proposed to walks out on him because she
found out about his vigilante shit. That’s
seven dead people and a lost lover on two coasts. And of the people I just listed only one dies
as a direct result of Kersey’s actions.
The rest are happenstance. Come...on!
Anyway, this time Kersey gets tangled up with the Irish mob
and again, it’s not really his fault.
The ex-husband of Olivia is a no good hood named O’Shea and he orders her
face smashed into a mirror repeatedly because she’s thinking of heading into
witness protection. On top of this
O’Shea steals their daughter away (technically he gained legal custody but he
strong-armed it) to keep as a hostage. Sadly
Olivia gets shot and falls off a roof nonetheless. Kersey enters vigilante mode one final time.
Strangely there’s sort of a sadistic edge to this
entry. Kersey uses some unusual tactics
we’ve never seen from him before which leads to horror movie type deaths. For example he poisons a henchman’s cannolis
with cyanide and the way this douchebag shovels those pastries into his mouth
at breakneck speed makes the death disgusting to watch. For another Kersey uses a remote control
soccer ball (which is just a weird damn toy to begin with but evidently it
really exists) to detonate a bomb in someone’s face setting them ablaze from
the waist up. And the award for
strangest torture goes to the guy Kersey seals up in heavy plastic like in a
warehouse where you would wrap an entire pallet full of shit. Before the victim suffocates to death Kersey
rips open an air hole but then proceeds to hang him up on a motorized rack for
shuffling garments around the clothing factory.
But hold your horses ‘cause we have to address the gigantic
open pit of acid. Why is this in a
garment factory? No clue. It’s there though completely exposed, no
cover, no railing or safety equipment of any kind to prevent people from
falling in, nothing. Through
demonstration we know it dissolves a mannequin almost instantly so this is like
some of the strongest acid on mother earth.
Thankfully that death juice is saved for a big moment.
Unfortunately after four straight slam dunks there isn’t a
young future mega star actor making their feature debut as a gangster in this
one. All involved were either already
established or didn’t do much else. Oh
well. That was a helluva stretch though
wasn’t it?
This last installment ends on a not particularly strong note
but there are a couple of fun moments, it has a darker edge and perhaps the fiercest
singular villain in the series. And the
movie tries its damnedest to build up Kersey as a “hero” who hasn’t lost his
groove. He’s definitely still a
dangerous motherfucker. He hasn’t met a
foe he couldn’t handle or even physically injure him in any real way. I don’t know if I would absolutely recommend
watching this one on its own but if you’re going through the Death Wishes
don’t skip it.
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