By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Eli Roth
Cast: Bruce Willis, Elizabeth Shue, Camila Morrone, Mike Epps, Dean Norris, Kimberly Elise, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Beau Knapp and Vincent D`Onofrio.
Rating: Poor.
Eli Roth, director of “Hostel” and “Cabin Fever” brings “Death Wish” a remake from the 1974 film starring Charles Bronson and this one is not even close to that version.
The movie takes place in Chicago and tells the story of Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) a successful surgeon that one night his wife Lucy (Elizabeth Shue) and daughter Jordan (Camila Morrone) suffer a break in their home where Lucy dies and his daughter ends in a coma.
After constant failures of the Police Department on trying to capture the thieves, Paul Kersey goes to the streets as a vigilante seeking justice and avenging his family, where not only he will become the target of the police department, but a media sensation as well.
As you know “Death Wish” is an action movie that could have had a better result but unfortunately the story was very lame.
The screenplay written by Joe Carnahan, who wrote 2002´s “Narc”, which I consider a fantastic movie failed here and big time. The scenes didn´t make any sense and this film is filled with dialogue and scenes that bored me to death.
The action sequences and deaths of the villains were so over the top that at some point they were laughable. I don´t know if this was Eli Roth´s intention but he failed and badly.
Not only the camera work in this film was not good, but the performances didn’t work either. Bruce Willi´s character was stiff the whole movie and I´m surprised since he frequently plays characters that are likable and fun to watch.
The other thing that was missing was a villain and there wasn´t a real one. You might think that burglars/killers who break into Bruce Willis character are the ones but he sets his personal vendetta against them at almost at the end of act two.
The beauty of the 1974 film directed by Michael Winner, which was a film that caused a lot of controversy due to the amount of violence and the raping scene at the beginning of the film was the fact that Charles Bronson´s character Paul Kersey which plays an architect and not a doctor is that the villain is the system. You see a man filled with rage and frustration that the authorities cannot help him and you feel for his character.
Here was not the case and I was watching a movie that I didn´t feel anything for it´s main character.
I have seen Bruce Willi´s films through the years and normally I enjoyed them even if there are bad but still I have a good time with them.
Eli Roth I think he is a good director and he has prove it with movies like “Cabin Fever” and “Hostel” but here I think he wanted it to do an over the top action film and he achieved it but the screenplay involved was filled with dumb scenes and exposition that was completely unnecessary.
The ending I feel that Roth wanted to do a homage to the 1974 version but it didn´t work and like most of the film I laughed.
With that being said “Death Wish” not only is one of the worst action films I´ve seen in a while but also is one of the worst of this year.