Death Wish is the latest reincarnation of the old Charles Bronson Death Wish and who better to portray Bronson’s Paul Kersey than Bruce Willis. Willis’ Paul Kersey is a renowned trauma surgeon in a Chicago hospital as opposed to Bronson’s kersey who was an architect.
When three men break into kersey’s home and kill his wife and severely wounded his daughter who is in a coma, Kersey sets out to take matters into his own hands when police are slow to react. Not only does he go after the men who killed his wife, but he also kills other low life attackers in the process. It is not long before all the media, newspapers, TV and radio start talking about the hooded vigilante stalking the streets whom they name The Grim Reaper.
The movie starts off rather slow, but does pick up as Willis uses imaginative ways to kill off his thugs. He finds one of the intruders into his house working as a mechanic in a gas station and pursues him after closing time. The guy is working under a car and Willis puts a gun to his head, ties him up and uses a scalpel to cut an incision in him. He then proceeds to pour motor oil over the incision torturing the guy to give him the name of their leader. While the thug is tied up under the car, Willis jacks it up to the highest level. The thug screams out, “You ’re not going to kill me are you?” to which Willis replies, “No, Jack will,” as he pulls the jack out with a long chain causing the car to come crashing down on the thug.
Willis’ brother, played by Vincent D’Onofrio, discovers that his brother is the vigilante. When he confronts him he says, “Paul this has got to stop. You can’t keep doing this.” To which Paul replies, “You mean to tell me my wife is killed and daughter maimed and there‘s no consequences? Someone has to do it!”
The film is directed by Eli Roth who is known for his graphic, sadistic depictions of violence in his film, but here the bloodshed is more subdued and typical of what filmgoers expect to see.
Willis is very good but is his typical action hero self that his fans love to see.
The timing of the release of this film is ironic with all the gun violence and demonstrations going on today, but I’m sure the release date was decided beforehand.
Check out the exciting trailer here; Death Wish (2018) – IMDb
