Harry Situation Reviews: Death Wish (2018)

And the award for unnecessary remake goes to...

Death Wish is the remake of the Charles Bronson classic vigilante film of the same name, only this time starring Bruce Willis. In a style similar to the original, Bruce Willis is a surgeon who learns that his wife was killed and his daughter is in a coma after a burglary gone wrong. So in response, he goes out into the streets of Chicago as a public avenger and it's just about as generic and dull as it gets.

I've only seen a few of the Death Wish films and can only say that they have some enjoyment, but are definitely products of their time. This film is nothing new and that's the major issue. If you've seen any of the previous Death Wish movies, you've seen this movie. If you've seen any vigiliante movie, you've seen this movie. Rinse and repeat.

Now, let me talk about Bruce Willis in this movie. Oh my god, this guy, one of the greatest action stars of all time, has suddenly forgotten how to act. He just looks so bored and deadpan throughout this whole movie. This is the guy whose catchphrase is 'yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker'. What drained this guy from having any emotions in this movie? He's not the only one. There are some wooden performances and generic roles given to certain actors. For example, Dean Norris is in this movie playing a detective. If you're a Breaking Bad fan like me, it's nothing to be surprised about. I'll say the only person that seemed convincing was Vincent D'Onofrio, who played Bruce Willis' brother in this movie.

This film was also directed by Eli Roth. Oh boy, let's talk about Eli Roth for a minute. I don't like him as a director. This guy has a fetish for gore exploitation. He likes making movies super violent to a point of puking. Not only that, I personally think he's a bad director overall. Yes, even Cabin Fever, which people will argue as one of his best movies, I personally don't like that movie. In this film, everything is poorly paced and exposition comes out the wazoo through the news and podcasts. However, I will give the film a little credit, there were some kills that were pretty cool, but there not enough to save the film.

Let's talk about the big thing about this movie. It's something I've heard and read from other reviews before, and that is that this movie was released on bad timing. The movie was first released back in March during a time where school shootings suddenly getting out of hand. I personally don't think that is the right criticism for this movie. Just saying that a film is bad because it came out at the wrong time. That's not why this film is bad. It's bad because it's so generic to the point that nothing new is added at all.

Not only that, but this movie has no idea what it wants to be. Should this be a film about a suffering man taking his anger out on street crime, or is that supposed to be some kind of political message about gun violence or vigilante justice? The film asks one too many questions and the audience is never given any answers.

Death Wish is a film I wished could have been at least entertaining, but it wasn't. I'm kinda glad I didn't see this on opening weekend and instead watched it through Amazon Prime. This film is a missfire.

Positives:

-A couple cool kills

Negatives:

-Willis' wooden performance

-Generic plot

-Generic action

-Poorly paced

-Exposition

-Unneeded remake

Final Grade: F

Thanks for reading. My 200th review special is still in the works, and I'll be sure to tag everyone once it's done.

So there's my thoughts on Death Wish (2018). Have you seen it? What were your thoughts? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check out more reviews here on Prose!

Best Quote:

Punk: "You're not gonna kill me?"

Paul Kersey: "No. Jack is."

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