Review of Death Wish (2018) by Teddy F — 14 Mar 2018

There is nothing better than a montage of Bruce Willis assembling and learning to use a gun with AC/DC playing over it...right? Death Wish is a perfect example of a "you get what you paid for" flick. Is it a quality movie? Probably not. But does it deliver? Yes, it sure does.

Bruce Willis finds himself back in theaters for the first time in a while and performs as expected. Death Wish is not his best work and doesn't appear to be the movie that puts him back on the map, but Willis was fun to watch nonetheless. He balances out his character's family drama and vigilante brutality with his trademark stone-face; Willis delivers his one-liners as if it were routine.

Death Wish is an action movie with surprising substance. Sure, it has plenty of scenes where guns are shot, but it also raises some valuable, although possibly cliché, questions. How far is too far when protecting your family? Or avenging them? How much can the average person take the law into their own hands without breaking the law or getting in the law's way? Should they do this at all? The movie intertwines fictional talk shows, radio shows, and news reports into scene transitions where the hosts discuss whether or not they support the "Grim Reaper's" actions. The movie never gives an answer, and obviously focuses more on delivering the action you paid for instead of engaging in a philosophical debate, but these are still interesting questions to consider. In one scene, the movie also shows how easy it is to obtain a gun. How you interpret what the movie was trying to say there, if anything at all, is up to you, but I found it to be another interesting issue raised in the movie.

Death Wish also goes back and forth between tones fairly well. It is a strange combination of family drama and gritty revenge flick. It never gets overly dark and brooding, but it never is too light-hearted either. This unusual mix is consistent throughout the movie. Death Wish knows what it wants to be and sticks to it.

The script might not be impressive or the acting inspiring, but Death Wish is an unexpectedly enjoyable remake; call it a poor man's John Wick.