Death Wish (2018) User Reviews

A Throwback Action Film

[soundoflight · 8/10 · 1 April 2018]

Do you remember when movies were made just to be movies, and not to push political agendas? Do you remember when movies where meant to be fun, and not lessons? Do you remember when action movies had a semblance of depth and were not just reliant on CGI?

I do. And so do the makers of Death Wish. Death Wish is a throwback to the good old days, the days of movies like Die Hard - just good solid action movies that took the time to build character and create interesting stories. Death WIsh is not 2 hours of people getting their head blown off (though there are heads blown off, don't worry). I was actually a bit afraid it might be, and was pleasantly surprised at how patient the film is, how it slowly builds its story to what I found to be a gripping conclusion. Death Wish is not really that inventive, but it seems inventive compared to what we've been getting from Hollywood lately. It's rare when you call something both a throwback and refreshing, but that's how I would describe Death Wish.

So in conclusion, if you are you're an average movie goer who wants nothing more than to see Avengers movies again, and again, and again, and who wants some trendy political message crammed down your throat while doing it, then you may not like Death Wish. Or if you are a paid film critic (which today means a paid social justice critic), you will also probably not like Death Wish as it has very little in the way of trendy social lessons on offer. It's just a good movie.

Ignore the critics backlash

[neilmalcom · 10/10 · 5 March 2018]

One only has to notice the difference between the critics ratings and user ratings to see there is a definite agenda to trash this movie as part of this sudden anti gun agenda in Hollywood. I'm often the first to ignore a movie based on poor critic ratings but am glad I looked past them to go see this. This movie is exactly what we all thought it would be: revenge based action flick with some wit scattered throughout. Bruce Willis nailed the lead role and Dean Norris was perfect as the detective trying to figure out just who this vigilante was. I'll address some of the critic complaints pertaining to this movie, specifically and abundance of unneeded gore and endless media hyping of the vigilante. First, there was only two brief scenes that I recall where the blood and guts were perhaps a bit much. Even then, very brief. Secondly, while there was some parts of the movie showing radio and TV talking heads debating the vigilante, it was not "endless" as some have described. Overall, Bruce Willis was perfect as a replacement for Charles Bronson and as other reviewers have mentioned likely a far better choice than Sylvester Stallone. I really doubt anyone who wants to be entertained by an action flick would be disappointed with Death Wish.

Bruce Willis Is Back

[drahulrajjsd · 10/10 · 1 March 2018]

It's 12.30am over here in Malaysia, and yesterday was the premiere of Eli Roth's "Death Wish Movie," starring the legendary Bruce Willis. Now, firstly, I have not seen the original, but as a big fan of Eli Roth's horror movies, I had to watch it and I have to say, it's very well executed by Master of Horror, Eli Roth. It's a violent revenge action movie. It's no ordinary direct-to-video movie or overrated Hollywood movie. Most importantly, it's a movie that finally stars Bruce Willis as the main man, bringing back the action in the old school way. It also stars great actors such as Vincent D'Onofrio and Elisabeth Shue. It's definitely awesome to see a Hollywood legend kicking ass, the old school way, on the big screen. It's all thanks to Eli Roth, and God bless him for bringing back Bruce Willis.

Better than the original

[jaimegonzales210 · 10/10 · 5 March 2018]

My kids made me go see this movie, and after watching it I was glad they did. The story different enough to make this one seem very "now", so comparing this movie to the 1974 original is really not fair to either movie. Bruce Willis is good, Elisabeth Shue is good, the detectives are good. The movie doesn't run long, is paced well and I liked the action. Movies are supposed to entertain and this one is entertaining.

I remember seeing the original Death Wish in a drive-in. It was good, too. I hope they do a sequel for this one.

Enough with the fake reviews already!

[sarepthora · 3/10 · 1 June 2018]

Enough with the fake reviews already. This was clearly not a good movie! One of the worst performances Bruce Willis has ever shown us. No emotion what so ever, which is odd when your wife is killed and you're out for revenge... but oké, seen a bad movie not worth mentioning, moving on. At least I would, if it weren't for all the fake high rating reviews. I can imagine people finding this an oke movie, sure, but no one in his or her right mind is gonna give this a 10 out of 10 and call this Bruce's best job ever. So IMDb, this is happening way to much lately, please start sorting this out or I,m sure people will start giving up on the whole thing and run for the exits here, I know I'm about to!

Skip it

[TheOneThatYouWanted · 4/10 · 14 July 2018]

Man, Bruce Willis really isn't even trying to act anymore. His character in the film just lost his wife and Willis plays him like a man mildly disappointed by a so-so piece of cake. And the action really isn't worth watching. This film is a pass.

Not Woke!

[rickdecastro · 10/10 · 3 March 2018]

Great to see a movie that can entertain and not drown the audience with political correctness....

Worth Your Time!

[joshrichardson-18234 · 10/10 · 4 March 2018]

America has been starving for a truly entertaining film with no political baggage, and Death Wish delivers. It doesnt incriminate the viewer for owning a weapon with which to defend themselves, which sets it apart from most movies today. Perhaps excessively gory at times, it still manages to tell a meaningful story, and executes (pardon the pun) the theme cleverly.

Wow

[riredale-2 · 10/10 · 5 March 2018]

You can read the plot details on the other reviews, and you've probably seen the earlier version with Bronson.

Did you enjoy the original "Death Wish?" Did you enjoy "Die Hard?" Do you like Bruce Willis in general?

Got at least one out of three? Go see this.

In a word: WOW.

Are you all related to the Director????

[johnjsomers · 1/10 · 31 May 2018]

I am not an expert reviewer but after seeing all the 10/10 reviews, which I can only assume, are by millennials who are used to watching YouTube clips, I just had to write something to kind of give balance to the nonsense. I have read comments about the "depth" and "charter (I assume they were trying for character) development" There is NONE! Also phrases such as "It's a throwback to the 80s" obviously from someone who wasn't born in the 80s! This is total rubbish played out by Willis who knows (oh he knows) that his days of being The action hero are long gone. I'm not one of those "Well I really love Eli Roth" people. Neither am I a wing (left or right) or part of some anti gun group, before I'm judged to be, just someone who is a bit discerning when it comes to what I will spend 1 hour and 45 minutes watching. If a movie is good, then it's good. If a movie is a big steamy pile, then it's not! This is the latter! In the first 6 minutes there is a character at the daughters football (soccer) game, who looks like someone from a hidden camera gameshow, who is blatantly trying to get a reaction, First you see him standing there fidgeting, looking all around and then he starts with the obscenities and the threats. Straight from there to a restaurant for celebratory meal with daughter and guess what? Yep, the dodgy valet! Skip to where the Wife is dead in hospital and the scene is acted as though a bike had been stolen from his front driveway, absolutely no real anger, grief, nothing! It goes on from one stupid scene to the next. Seriously this generation of movie makers lack imagination when it comes to making original movies and instead seem intent on re making everything that was good in the day so they can make money from people who cannot tell good from bad.

Absurd politics on Rotten Tomatoes and a dynamite comeback for Willis

[sastorytellerfilms · 10/10 · 4 March 2018]

This is a great movie form Eli Roth. The reality it portrays is when you are the one losing a loved one to senseless violence all of your ideas of peace without violence truly go out the window. Jennifer Lawrence has Red Sparrow out and just watch as that movie is lined up with praise and high ratings now that we have all of this women are better than men agendas being pushed. Real men aren't moved by these kinds of things and that's how this country was even founded and has the constitution is because of men like the one Bruce plays in this movie. This movie won't appeal to mainstream media, social justice warriors, white knights, or black lives matters crowds because it has no respect for any color. It is simply a movie that represents a man taking a stand for truth, justice, and honor for his family. Something only a real man would understand and women that love real men can appreciate in this film. This is not a movie for Millennials and their propaganda. It's a movie based on cold reality with fantastic acting,characters, and emotion. Willis delivers a heart felt performance and will always be a bad ass for those of us that feel the same way about being a true American, loving our freedom, and right to protect our family.

Muddled, ponderous and tepid

[ginocox-206-336968 · 5/10 · 24 May 2018]

Death Wish (2018) opens with a montage that feels like some sort of PSA advocating gun control, which seems frightfully incongruous in the remake of a film about vigilantism, especially when a character ultimately relies on a fully-automatic BDR-15 3G assault rifle to defend his home and family.

This is one of many incongruities in a film that seems torn between the demands of the action genre and the social imperative to present a progressive, liberal political message.

Action films tend to fall to the right of the political spectrum, featuring such elements as clandestine operations without public oversight, extrajudicial executions, sophisticated clandestine surveillance, enhanced interrogations, vigilantism, private ownership of firearms, concealed weapons and criminal profiling. This doesn't preclude presenting different perspectives, as was done effectively in Lions for Lambs (2007), Spy Game (2001) or Lone Star (1996). Nor does it preclude a cautionary message, as in Secret in Their Eyes (2015) or Eye in the Sky (2015). However, presenting dissenting viewpoints needs to be done more skillfully than is evident here.

The inciting incident in Death Wish (1974), starring Charles Bronson, was the brutal onscreen gang rape of his wife and daughter. The audience was appalled and instantly sympathetic with Bronson's Paul Kersey. But a scene of sexual abuse might not sit well with audiences in the #MeToo era. So, the filmmakers empower the two women. First, they spend a full ninety seconds establishing that the daughter has been accepted into a top university, then show that she's an athlete and proficient in the Krav Maga fighting system. We also learn that the mother is about to earn her Ph.D.

The inciting incident doesn't occur until about fifteen minutes into the film and doesn't make much sense. We're expecting a truly horrendous act that will push Bruce Willis's Dr Kersey, a man dedicated to compassion and saving lives, over the edge. The setup is actually fairly clever. A group of burglars learn that an upscale home will be vacant at a particular time and wait for the family to leave. But something happens to disrupt the family's plans and Dr Kersey departs, leaving his wife and daughter alone. Rather than scrubbing their plan, the burglars wait. Eventually, the wife and daughter also leave and the burglars enter. But, rather than staying out all evening, the ladies return after a brief errand to find three armed burglars hiding in the shadows wearing masks. Why are they wearing masks to burglarize an empty home? Maybe they're afraid this family with no children has a nanny cam. And why carry a firearm, which would subject them to much more severe penalties if captured?

One of the burglars decides he wants to sexually assault the daughter. Exactly what he has in mind is never clear. But another tells him, "We don't have time for this!" Who is it exactly that doesn't have time? The three burglars have been waiting in their van for perhaps an hour or so, and continued to wait after Dr Kersey left. Another burglar just told the wife that she would save them twenty minutes by opening the safe, so they're running ahead of schedule. We later learn the items they stole are still at their fence's a couple of weeks later. The audience has sat through a quarter of hour of exposition on gun control and female empowerment, waiting for the gratuitous sex and violence they came to see. The victim isn't going anywhere. Everybody seems to have nothing but time on their hands.

One wonders if the dialogue actually expresses the angst and frustration of the screenwriter and/or director, compelled by societal pressures to incorporate incongruous political messages which slow the pace and weaken dramatic impact. In any event, the scene fizzles rather than shocks. Rather than executing a brilliant Krav Maga maneuver, the daughter slashes one of the assailants with a novelty knife, which, unlike most novelty knives, is razor sharp. The burglars don't brutally gang-rape the daughter, which would make Dr Kersey's motives seem more credible and give the actress's later scenes greater poignancy. Instead, Dr Kersey is motivated almost entirely by the effects of gun violence, which he already sees every day as a trauma surgeon.

Death Wish often feels as if it is distracted by trying to deliver political messages. Detective Raines (Dean Norris) has a partner, played by Kimberly Elise, who doesn't do much or say anything that Raines couldn't say, but stands around looking diverse and inclusive.

DW could have taken any of various directions. Dr Kersey's quest for vengeance could have taken him deeper and deeper into the criminal underbelly of society. His acts of violence could have profoundly impacted his view of society and his medical practice. They could have drawn an allegory between his acts and the gang members who resort to violence when unable to seek justice when somebody steals their drugs or infringes on their turf. A copycat vigilante is killed and Dr Kersey's actions are the topic of running commentary by talk show hosts, but no profound insights are offered.

Dr Kersey seems largely reactive, rather than proactively driving the action. A putatively untraceable pistol which is seemingly not linked to any other crimes literally falls into his hands, as do various clues as to the identities of the burglars. Much of the plot relies on similar coincidences, making it seem contrived.

We're left with a ponderous and tepid action film that devotes more effort to not ruffling feathers than building complex multifaceted characters with believable motives.

As generic as it gets

[plpregent · 5/10 · 25 May 2018]

Carrying the same title as the classic 1974 vigilante flick starring Charles Bronson, Eli Roth's latest installment is set in modern-day Chicago, a city plagued with gang violence. Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis), a pacific, non-violent surgeon and family man, sees his life turn upside down when his wife (Elizabeth Shue) and daughter are brutally attacked by a bunch of serial home invading thugs. Feeling frustrated as he witnesses the helplessness of the local police department, who also happens to be flooded with similar cases, Kersey decides to take matters into his own hands, and begins hunting criminals through the streets of Chicago, helping a few people in need on the way, but ultimately tracking (and taking) down the men responsible for the violence inflicted to his family.

I think it's safe to say that, when it comes to vigilante flicks, it's only fair to expect a pretty typical storyline along those lines. What usually makes the difference is how the main character evolves throughout, how nasty the main villain is, how colourful the set of secondary characters is, and how creative the kills get. Unfortunately, Eli Roth's Death Wish does not pack enough surprises anywhere to make the film memorable in any way.

Having for protagonist a surgeon working in an emergency room is actually the best idea within this average-at-best script. It brings perhaps the most interesting moments in the entire film. Besides that, Kersey's psychological evolution throughout is beyond clichéd, both in terms of writing and delivery, as it's delivered mostly through a classic montage of shooting range practice, glimpses of appointments with a therapist, radio hosts debating whether Kersey is a hero or a criminal, and sequences of street shootings. Then it's all rinse and repeat. While Bruce Willis manages to build a likeable character in the first few scenes, this editing pattern quickly takes over and carries the audience from one killing sequence to the next, thereby earmarking character development as a secondary distraction.

Support characters are a complete shame, as they are generic and lack any depth whatsoever, despite being played by a great cast of actors (Elizabeth Shue, Dean Norris and Vincent D'Onofrio). You barely ever get to know any of the villains, which lack any personality whatsoever and always briefly appear on screen before getting brutally killed. Extremely basic characters.

Some of the kills are pretty graphic, but it's nothing we have not seen before. Considering how the entire film appears to gravitate around this particular aspect, it's a bit of a shame that they could not even come up with something original or striking, gritty violence.

Eli Roth's direction is pretty average. The intro sequence was fun to watch, as it was reminiscent of B series action flicks from the 70s, but as the film went on, montage after montage, the story and action unfold in quite a bland manner, without ever generating much excitement.

There is also a somewhat tangible attempt at bringing up the classic ambiguous questions stemming from individuals making their own justice, which ends up being yet another secondary, shallow distraction that never amounts to anything.

With all that being said, I sat through the whole film wondering what would happen next, which I suppose indicates that Death Wish still packs some entertainment value and is somewhat compelling. However, my appreciation for this type of story might have been what got me to the end credits. There are two or three one liners that managed to put a smile on my face, and few wince-inducing moments that'll help anyone interested in this type of film cruise to the end credits. Just don't expect to be surprised in any way.

There are many other films with the exact same storyline that are much worthier watches.

Great Performance by Bruce Willis

[amberlitteken · 10/10 · 4 March 2018]

Without giving too much away I feel I need to give a quick synopsis of the movie. Dr. Paul Kersey is an ER surgeon in Chicago, who while at work, was confronted with the news that his wife was murdered during a home invasion and his daughter was in critical condition. Kersey, wrought with the fact that he couldn't protect his family, then acquires a Glock 17 and kills a few criminals on the streets, perhaps to cope with his guilt, or perhaps since the cops failed at keeping the streets safe. Gratuitous violence ensues.

Bruce Willis, played the antihero Dr. Paul Kersey in such a fresh way, deviating from his tried and true action hero roles. His performance of Kersey learning the news that his wife was dead was heart wrenching. He didn't display the traditional hysterical sobbing and then rage at the ones responsible, but rather exuded a quiet sadness that was so profound it felt more genuine and believable.

I love how Eli Roth directed Death Wish. The movie had great pacing, it was full of memorable dialog, it had the right amount of gore and revenge. My only disappointment is that the end of the movie neatly wrapped everything up so there was no hint at a sequel or franchise.

Some reviewers are getting too political about this movie. Saying we are all gun-crazy people in the US who don't believe in the justice system and want vigilante justice. It's just a movie people...

Strong writer, director, and cast deliver a disappointingly routine remake

[a_chinn · 4/10 · 12 July 2018]

I really wanted to love this film and had a lot of goodwill going into it despite it's bad reviews. I love a good revenge film. I love director Eli Roth. I love screenwriter Joe Carnahan. I love the original Charles Bronson "Death Wish" film. I love Bruce Willis in anything, but especially in action roles. This story is violent, politically charged, from a director who popularized torture porn, and based on a film that was reviled upon it's original release, so I was willing to write off mainstream critics who routinely trash these sorts of genre films. However, despite that excellent pedigree, this film disappoints. This remake does change a fair number of things from the original film, but that's not where this film goes wrong. Changes include Willis being a doctor instead of an architect, New York has become Chicago, and most significantly a media buzz story element was added. The main plot remains the same though, with Willis playing a pacifist who's driven to violence following a vicious attack on his wife and daughter during a home invasion, seeking vigilante justice on those responsible. Where this film goes wrong is that it plays it way too safe. Starting with the home invasion scene, I remember being far more disturbed by Michael Winner's version than Roth's version here, which surprised me since Roth is the same person who made audiences infamously squirm with "Hostel" and "Hostel II" and in this film seems to go out of his way to play it safe. More notably the film plays it safe when it comes to the politics of the story and seems nowhere as incendiary as the original film in regards to the politics of guns, justice, and vigilantism, which seems ripe in today's political and cultural climate. The original film was a classic because it was so vicious and was so incendiary. Brian Garfield, the author of the book "Death Wish" was based on, so reviled the politics of the Charles Bronson film version, he wrote a sequel "Death Sentence" as a sort of rebuttal to the Michael Winner film. What we get in the Eli Roth remake is a movie that doesn't want to offend and wants to be a crowd pleasing action film, which is not what made the original "Death Wish" a classic. It also doesn't help that Willis seems to sleepwalk through the film (which he seems to do too much of late), which is disappointing because this is a part that would have given him ample opportunities to display anguish or some kind of internal conflict over his actions, making for a great opportunity to show off his acting chops, but he instead simply goes through the movie action hero paces. Director Roth does deliver some competently done action sequences and as well as some clever torture-liked scenes, but it's nothing all that original and nothing that makes this films worth going out of your way to watch. Overall, "Death Wish" is a huge disappointment and missed opportunity. Instead of watching this film, everyone should watch James Wan's under-appreciated 2007 film "Death Sentence" starring Kevin Bacon.

Great revenge movie, very satisfying

[geeliddell · 9/10 · 8 March 2018]

Don't pay attention to the critics.Just becasue this movie does not go along with the Approved Narrative does not mean it is boring. The movie might present a negative side of Chicago(Rahm Immanuel's city). It is a first class action revenge flick, presenting the frustrations of average Americans who are told by the police to 'wait' and 'have faith' while their loved ones go unnoticed to the grave!!! Never a dull moment.

A Great Action-Thriller. Ignore the "critics"

[cdp-16186 · 9/10 · 5 March 2018]

First off, ignore all of the so called professional critics who have been slamming this film with overly negative reviews, simply due to petty politics. They are no better than the vile individuals that planned to flood Black Panther with negative ratings.

It is a violent, action-thriller, so it is what it is. If you enjoy the genre, you'll likely enjoy this film.

It's not the greatest movie ever, but it is far the splatty/rotten ratings it has received.

ALL AMERICAN

[zlnzow · 10/10 · 21 February 2020]

AWESOME

A movie that skipped Hollywood LIEBERALS As good as the original. There is action, constitutional respect and fair all american maidens and they also show beautiful feminine legs on the maidens. and then evil (gonzalez) happens! WATCH

Deaf, blind and dead inside

[marcosaguado · 3 March 2018]

A remake of Michael Winner's Death Wish, that in itself is kind of depressing. How can the filmmakers be so unaware of the times we're living in or maybe they are not, unaware. If they know what they're doing then it's just unforgivable. But if one tries to put all that aside and try to see it just as a movie without any deep or ugly intentions, still doesn't work. No, not for a moment. We've all seen it before, a million times. and much, much better.

A Bruce Willis comeback

[vickyaggelogiannaki · 10/10 · 17 March 2018]

Everything you really want to see in a movie with Bruce is here. Action, gunshots, blood and some father instincts just to hit you in the feelings. I wasn't disappointed, pretty much everything I was expecting was in there. Recommended for sure.

Below Average, Superficial, and little like Bronson's "Death Wish"

[zardoz-13 · 3/10 · 7 March 2018]

Horror movie maestro Eli Roth's lukewarm remake of the notorious vigilante thriller "Death Wish," with Bruce Willis taking over the role that elevated Charles Bronson to superstardom in 1974, qualifies as a scrupulously conventional revenge movie. Not only does it wallow in far less violence than the original "Death Wish," but also "A-Team" scribe Joe Carnahan doesn't bring either enough nerve or verve with this white-knuckled, urban melodrama. You would think that seasoned, surefooted filmmakers, like Roth and Carnahan, could have fashioned a remake that could have surpassed its intelligent but raw-edged predecessor. Slipshod, superficial, and surprisingly improbable, this tasteful depiction of organized crime updates the saga of Paul Kersey. Roth and Carnahan have changed the hero's profession from an architect to an emergency room physician. In Brian Garfield's 1972 novel, Kersey was an accountant. Now, they have shifted the setting is crime-riddled Chicago rather than New York City. Apart from preserving the protagonist's name, the about only other thing Roth and Carnahan have retained is the finger pistol that Bronson made at Union Station. Unlike the original "Death Wish," with its cohesive storyline and the Bronson character's well-developed backstory, the new "Death Wish" doesn't dwell much on the backstory of the Willis protagonist with regard to guns.

Anybody who craved the controversial Bronson classic will be disappointed by this pedestrian adaptation. Sixty-two-year-old, chrome-domed Bruce Willis appears twenty years too old to be a Glock-toting, Grim Reaper roaming the lawless streets of the Windy City for degenerates to dispatch without a qualm. Sadly, "Full Metal Jacket's" Vincent D'Onofrio makes mostly small-talk as Kersey's concerned brother, but he doesn't interact meaningfully in Kersey's escapades. The biggest revelation is the unlikely casting of comedian Mike Epps as a decent ER surgeon in a peripheral role. Reviled during its initial release, director Michael Winner's "Death Wish" (1974) emerges by comparison as an artistic artifact of 20-century paranoia. Whether they sought to distance themselves from their predecessor, Roth and Carnahan have changed everything that made the original such a memorable commentary on vigilante violence. Mind you, the four original "Death Wish" sequels were pale imitations of the first film. The new "Death Wish" doesn't generate sufficient charisma to induce a follow-up. Interestingly, despite its glittering aerial camerawork of Chicago, the filmmakers lensed most of the fireworks in Montreal. The violence is gory, but Eli Roth-who helmed the two "Hostel" movies, "Cabin Fever," and "Green Inferno"-soft-pedals the carnage. "Death Wish" never turns into one of his grisly horror movies.

Paul Kersey rotates as a trauma doctor at Chicago's North Hospital. In the first scene, a wounded Chicago patrolman dies before Kersey can save him. The dead cop's partner is incredulous that now Kersey will fight to save the life of the criminal who shot his partner. Like the Charles Bronson hero, the new Paul Kersey has a wife, Lucy Kersey (Elizabeth Shue of "Adventures in Babysitting"), and a daughter, Jordan Kersey (Camila Morrone of "Bukowski"), who has just gotten accepted to a college in New York City. Paul's troubled younger brother, Frank (Vincent D'Onofrio of "Men-In-Black"), dine out to celebrate the occasion. Before the valet brings around Paul's car at the restaurant, he snaps a cell phone photo of the destination on the dashboard GPS of Kersey's car. Later, Lucy and Jordan have just returned after a dinner date that fell through, and they are in the kitchen preparing to make a birthday cake for Paul from scratch. As she is scrutinizing her recipe manual, Lucy notices that a window has been opened. She also spots muddy footprints on the floor. Before either Kersey can react, three assailants in jump suits, baseball caps, and masks surprise them with guns. They take everything of value from Paul's bedroom vault. Snatching a knife, Jordan slashes one assailant's cheek, and violence erupts. The head burglar shoots Lucy, while Jordan is clubbed unconscious. Neither woman is raped as in the 1974 original. Paul learns about the incident while he is on duty. He discovers Jordan is comatose, and then finds his wife's body under a sheet in another ER suite. Naturally, Paul is stunned. Of course, the Chicago police make little progress with its investigation.

One night in the ER, Paul is attending the bloodied body of the valet when he notices his stolen watch on the man's wrist. Paul jars the examination table, and the valet's Glock pistol, obviously overlooked during a search, clatters to the floor! Kersey nudges it with his foot under the bed. Later, he retrieves the Glock, his wristwatch, and locates the dead valet's cell phone in the ambulance. Kersey teaches himself how to handle the Glock. Huddled inconspicuously in a hoodie, he trolls a bad neighborhood and foils a carjacking. During the shootout, the Glock bites him when the slide mangles his hand. Detective Kevin Raines (Dean Norris of "Starship Troopers") take notes. Not only is Kersey an amateur, but he also is a southpaw.

The biggest difference between the original and the remake is the Bruce Willis hero tracks down the three guys. These encounters are suitably violent. Comparatively, Bronson's Kersey never found his three muggers. Willis figures out where these dastards are and dispatches them. Their leader, Knox (Beau Knapp of "Run All Night"), texts him. Knox invites him for a pow-wow on neutral ground at a public night spot. The two men swap lead in a bathroom gunfight. Kersey escapes with a wound. Gradually, the police close in, but Kersey has the last word. "Death Wish" lacks the polish of the original and treats the vigilante issue with little of the depth of the original. Meantime, events conclude on a happier note for Bruce Willis' Paul Kersey. The ironic thing is Kersey defends himself during a home invasion with a fully automatic assault weapon, but the police don't charge him! Eli Roth's "Death Wish" amounts to little more than another standard-issue revenge thriller than a polemic about the evils of vigilantism.

Leave a classic alone or at least keep Eli Roth Away

[john_titmus · 2/10 · 3 August 2018]

The original Death Wish is a classic and still holds up today. The remake was pointless and an insult to the original. Eli Roth couldn't direct a kids play despite riding Tarantinos coat tails for years. Bruce Willis has followed Seagal and Van Damns direct to dvd low rent tripe.

Such a shame

Don't be put off by biased critics

[drmokedweed123 · 8/10 · 4 March 2018]

One thing is for certain this movie definitely triggered left leaners. In which whom gave it a 15% rotten (with an 85% audience like.) Then you look at all of the reviewers and they are all writing for far left sites like huffpo, NYT,etc. Every single one mentions the words 'gun nut' 'macho fantasy' and 'gun violence' as well as a few other buzzwords you see quite often. We're now at the point where critics virtue signal and pander to the audience that their website draws in as well as allowing their political leanings to influence their view. After all these were the same critics that gave the Ghost Busters remake an 80% because woo feminism. .

Decent movie. If you liked John Wick then you'll probably like this

Ignore the critics

[mykindofinspiration · 10/10 · 9 March 2018]

Honestly, this movie has been the best movie I have seen in a while. This movie was filled with violent action, amazing actors and a tremendous amount of more action. You will not regret seeing this move!

More intense than the original, but has the same spirit

[GOWBTW · 10/10 · 10 March 2018]

In 1974, "Death Wish" starred Charles Bronson. This new version starred Bruce Willis. They both played Paul Kersey. Bronson's Kersey was an architect in New York. Willis's version is a doctor. Bronson handled a gun well. Willis can handle a gun well, but his Paul Kersey version couldn't handle a Glock during the first encounter with the car jackers. Kersey(Willis) suffered a "slide bite" when he fired the Glock. Since this Paul Kersey is a doctor, he has no trouble patching up his wounds. And when he helped the black victims, they would see him as a hero. The car jacking victims and the kid who was shot by the "ice cream man". Though there were split thoughts about vigilante attacks, Kersey was avenging his family. So when his daughter came out of her coma, he stayed closer to her. Both versions of "Death Wish" were kind of the same. Only this one is updated. And it had some humor to it. The death scenes are little more gruesome than the Bronson version. I liked it very much. Both versions of the movie deserve a 2 Thumbs Up!! Both deserve 5 Stars!!!