Own the rights?
0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :- Sizzling Bacon., 29 December 2007 Author: dunmore_ego from Los Angeles, California
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
The ACTUAL sequel to Charles Bronson's 1974 *Death Wish*, the movie *Death Sentence* (written by same author, Brian Garfield, in 1975) does deviate from the novel (blame screenwriter Ian Jeffers and director James Wan), yet delivers a solid thematic punch often subsumed by this politically-gutless American society. By that I mean, in 2007 no one is willing to say out loud that revenge is sweet, or that revenge should be exacted at all – even though righteous vengeance is a staple of our animalistic species.*Death Sentence* says it out loud. Back in '74, when Bronson (as Paul Kersey) took justice into his tough-guy hands, America was reeling from rising crime rates in major cities, so his vigilantism was applauded by audiences. The *Death Wish* sequels progressively became unwatchable – not because of escalating violence or morality conundrums - but because (like the *Planet of the Apes* series) their production budgets nosedived with each sequel. But vigilantism is back. And being given the production value it deserves. Since *Death Wish* and the *Dirty Harry* series, most movie media has shied away from people exacting their due recompense with no hypocritical "societal values" muddying the mix. Now, not only is there Jodie Foster's vigilante vehicle, *The Brave One* (Sep 2007), there is also a mentally-retarded Amerikan president vengefully killing innocents in a country wholly disconnected to the faction who attacked America on September 11, 2001. Talk about confused Amerikan morality. Starring that guy who is, at most, six degrees from anyone, Kevin Bacon (as Nick Hume), *Death Sentence* pounds us so insistently with treacly cliché in its first act that it almost (ahem) shoots itself in the foot. (Idyllic family life, every major event like first bike rides, first steps, first base hit, videotaped professionally of course; bad part of town, rain-soaked funeral, cop who doesn't follow procedure... There's a even a picture of both brothers on the bedside table in the brothers' bedroom - that was unnecessary icing on an overbaked cake: maybe in the *parent's* bedroom, but what teen brother would have a picture of him and his teen brother on his bedside table?! They call that incest in some parts of Ohio…) Hume's Normal Rockwell is shattered when his eldest jock son is slayed in a senseless gang initiation in that aforementioned "bad part of town."Then it's Suburban Dads Gone Wild. And a very satisfying avenger The Bacon makes, seeking and destroying his son's killers in a compelling, "realistic" performance, aided by Kelly Preston as his wife, Aisha Tyler as a very non-prying detective, Garrett Hedlund as the head street thug and John Goodman in a role which will surprise you, if not make you laugh out loud ("LOL"?) at its impertinent miscasting. If this movie teaches us anything about dealing with thugs, it's that you act quickly, you act forcefully and you act decisively. After his first almost passively-violent (yet still satisfyingly vengeful) encounter with the actual thug who killed his son, Hume finds he is forced to take charge of his vigilante destiny when the gang comes after him for *their* revenge. (It's moments like these that we see what hot MILFs like Kelly Preston saw in their man way back when. Too bad marriage had to kill that spark.) The film is well-made, well-directed, with a look like iron filings were accidentally spilled over the filmstock. There are some weird coincidences gussied up to look like "twists" and a tiring chase scene that ends with a well-executed car-falling-off-roof stunt, which looks every bit as good as the trailer intimates. When Bacon shaves his head and arms himself with an arsenal that would make Rambo say, "Dude, dial it down to a seven!" we know this ain't Paul Kersey's Chicago anymore – this is *Death Wish* for a generation weaned on HALO 3 and *Dancing With The Stars.* (If *Dancing With The Stars* doesn't make you wanna go out and shoot people, you're already too numb to care…)Movie Maniacs, visit poffysmoviemania(dot)com.
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