Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

J. Lee Thompson

Writers:

Brian Garfield (characters)
Gail Morgan Hickman (writer)

Release Date:

6 November 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

The biggest Death Wish ever!

Plot:

Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey takes on the members of a vicious Los Angeles drug cartel to stop the flow of drugs after a friend's daughter dies from an overdose.

Plot Keywords:

Drugs | Architect | Drug Cartel | Vigilante | Violence

Cast

Charles Bronson	...	Paul Kersey
Kay Lenz	...	Karen Sheldon
John P. Ryan	...	Nathan White
Perry Lopez	...	Ed Zacharias
George Dickerson	...	Detective Reiner
Soon-Tek Oh	...	Det. Phil Nozaki (as Soon-Teck Oh)
Dana Barron	...	Erica Sheldon
Jesse Dabson	...	Randy Viscovich
Peter Sherayko	...	Nick Franco
James Purcell	...	Vince Montono
Michael Russo	...	Danny Moreno
Danny Trejo	...	Art Sanella
Daniel Sabia	...	Al Arroyo
Mike Moroff	...	Jack Romero
Dan Ferro	...	Tony Romero

Runtime:

99 min | Finland:91 min (cut version) | Norway:94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1988) (cut) | Finland:K-16 (1990) (cut) | Finland:K-18 (2005) (uncut) | Iceland:16 | Belgium:16 (video rating) | West Germany:18 (nf) | USA:R (certificate #28741) | New Zealand:R16 | Australia:R | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Ontario) | Denmark:15 | Norway:18 (video premiere) | Singapore:M18 | UK:18 | Norway:15 (DVD rating) (2005)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Cannon Group

Trivia:

In this film, the theme played most in the action scenes were from Missing in Action (1984) and Invasion U.S.A. (1985).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the restaurant explosion, it's obvious two dummies are blown up.

Quotes:

Paul Kersey: I was just using the... toilet?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Shakedown (1988)

Soundtrack:

In Some Brazil

A nice one in Bronson's Cannon line-up

Now if you expect to watch some Academy Award material here, stop reading and buy and rent something else. But if you want action-book material on the telly, this might just be the right stuff. Kersey is back, this time fighting two cocaine-gangs. Lee Thompson's directing is much more adequate than with several other Bronson-vehicles, the picture has a story to tell (whereas part 3 was just video game material) and fortunately it brings in Kay Lenz in a supporting role instead of trying to fit in Mrs Bronson (Jill Ireland) again. With nasty villains and one or two dumb police-officers we have an evening with some nice twists, shoot outs and a really good and original opening scene. Production values must have been up as well. Apart from the original this one outranks # 2.3 & 5 by far. Recommended.