A victim of bad sociopolitical timing (registering as the Gun Movie versus genre film no. 950,000,000 featuring scenes of gunfire), but otherwise an entirely entertaining, agreeably blunt old-school vigilante action film. The sense he will do almost anything for money, including destroying his flagship Die Hard franchise, has diminished Bruce Willis' stature in the last decade, but he is in agile and charismatic (if understandably understated) form here. And Eli Roth acquits himself decently directing a mainstream non-horror film for the first time; there are several exciting, polished chase and fight sequences.

Definitely the best movie Roth has done. I'm not a fan of his usually but outside of the violence you can't really tell it's a Roth film. It feels more grown up for him. I enjoy revenge movies and had a good time watching this.

8/10 (B+)

This was decent and nice to see Willis doing some serious work here. Roth does fine but there are no trademarks or nothing special about his direction, though a great turn for him from horror movies. I liked the first half building characters but the villains aren't as scary throughout and those vigilante news ads became annoying in the end.

6/10

Such a disposable flick and I still don't see why Roth chose this over The Meg. There is no sense of style to the directing and the action sequences while pretty gory are so mundane. Willis walked a fine line between trying at times and not giving a shit with his performance IMO. Vincent D'Onofrio is easily the best acting wise in this, although that isn't saying much honestly. The villains didn't feel very threatening either.

C

Death Wish

I quite liked this. It tries to be a social commentary on gun violence for a bit, to which it fails. Bruce is his usual horizontal self. And it's not exactly refined action. But I enjoyed the kills and showing his method and approach to revenge. It takes a bit of time to get going but I actually liked the non-action bits while it built it up. It's also quite light considering the subject matter. Hank Schrader brings some levity as well. It's not blemish-free but it really feels like Bruce's best film in years.

The worst thing about the film is Camila Morrone, Bruce's daughter. She is told to hide under the stairs and shut up. Does she? Of course not. Only a small thing but really pissed me off. She's lucky her dad already killed two-thirds of the gang that came to kill them! Still, if that's the worst thing, then it shows that this film isn't bad. If you're looking for an undemanding retro male actioner, you can't go far wrong with this remake.

B

Two lines that made me laugh. Both from Hank.

The girl films Bruce's first killing, and she is talking to Hank the cop about it. He says not to post it online or whatever you young people do these days. She says she already has and she's getting tons of hits. He says "terrific". lol.

Another is at the end when he's talking to Bruce and he's running off his list of injuries. Something like "so you're telling us that the cut on your hand that has almost healed, the one on your shoulder that is sewn up, and the bullet wound in your arm ... all happened tonight?". lol.

Is it better than the Kevin Bacon one?

Nope.

Decent flick, it's not up to the standard of Willis' prime, quite far from it even, but it's entertaining enough. I didn't see the original Bronson Death Wish, so I'm not sure how or if this remake is any different really, but I felt it did have more potential. There are some flaws that are keeping me from liking this more like that liquor store sequence, he had to slip on the blood, and then that bowling ball just had to fall on his head, a bit of lazy writing IMO to make things more dramatic. The ending didn't feel very inspired either, but it was fun to see the table gun in action. Overall I liked it anyway, nice supporting roles from D'Onofrio and Shue, and Willis' daughter in this is a real looker. The violence is nicely R-rated, and generally it's just cool to see some cold hard vigilante justice applied. It doesn't really reach a high action film level, but a solid watch nonetheless.

B-

Haha, knew it.

Well, I liked it, did not disappoint me, but some things as "Bruce is his usual horizontal self", "She is told to hide under the stairs and shut up. Does she? Of course not" are what earns it the -.
Then again, it's close to a full B, I could give it that, but nobody got hurt by a bit of diversity in this world...I think.

If I gave it a B+, you'd give it a B.

Everyone's A Critic

I didn't watch this, but I did watch the original and we don't have a thread for it so I'll just post here.

Death Wish (1974) is really one of the more effective gun-culture movies I've seen. Had me convinced for quite awhile that every citizen shouid be packing heat at all times. Then again, it also feels like criminals in 70s movies were extremely rude compared to the more sympathetic criminals of today's films. There's also the whole "black people are more likely to be muggers what do you expect?" line near the end of the film that is pretty terrible. Still, this is one of the most influential old guys get vigilante style revenge pictures that eventually lead to the John Wick style we know and love today.

I'll give Death Wish (1974) a 8.5/10

I completely forgot they remade this film. Havent seen it but the original is great.