Watch this if you have a death wish
Who doesn’t like the occasional action-packed, violent, cinema romp?
It gets the blood racing and doesn’t ask for much. You just have to sit there and soak up the mindless entertainment. It’s a genre that built Bruce Willis’ career – which is why it’s so concerning that he agreed to star in Death Wish, an unfortunate re-imagining of the 1974 revenge thriller Death Wish.
Dr Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) is a surgeon who only sees the aftermath of his city’s violence when it is rushed into his ER – until his wife (Elisabeth Shue) and college-age daughter (Camila Morrone) are viciously attacked in their suburban home.
With the police overloaded with crimes, Paul, burning for revenge, hunts his family’s assailants to deliver justice.
The literal take of an eye for an eye mentality is dangerous and silly. But add gratuitous violence, wooden acting and a try-too-hard-to-be-a-hero character, and you’ve got a smelting pot of bad.
While Eli Roth creates a reasonably suspenseful film, everything else just feels like a burden to watch.
As the anonymous slayings of criminals grabs media attention, Kersey becomes divided into a man that saves lives and takes them. It’s attempt at duality is boring and unrealistic and it all turns into a bid to glorify violence.
As an action star, Willis has owned the genre since he introduced the resourceful, tough and smart-ass Detective John McClane to audiences with Die Hard.
He brought the immensely popular character back for Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Live Free or Die Hard and A Good Day to Die Hard.
Amongst those, Willis also served up numerous complex character roles in films including Pulp Fiction, In Country, Nobody’s Fool, The Siege, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable; celebrated comedic turns in Blind Date, The Whole Nine Yards and The Whole Ten Yards, among others; and even more action thrills, including The Last Boy Scout, Twelve Monkeys, The Fifth Element, Armageddon, Sin City, 16 Blocks, Looper and RED; and being part of the hit The Expendables franchise.
But this is Willis’ worst film.