Well this was a pleasant little surprise.
After the utter trash that was Death Wish 3 and the sleaze-ball factory that was Death Wish 2, we get this moderately okay low budget action flick.
It doesn't really feel like a Death Wish movie.
You get this weird dream sequence at the beginning of the film where Charles Bronson shoots these random three thugs in an underground parking lot who where harassing his then-girlfriend* and then a little bit of Revenge on a drug dealer who sold his daughter-in-law(ish) some cocaine that ended up killing her. But after that it's just a mafia hit film.
This exceptionally wealthy man hires Charles Bronson's character Paul to assassinate a gang who's known for dealing drugs to children throughout the city.
It's framed as a moral good even though you can see a mile away the guy hiring him is probably a drug dealer himself.
And while that's happening his girlfriend decides to write scandling headline about drug corruption in their City.
Exposing all the different crime elements that are taking root.
Or at least I think that's where the film was going.
It's dropped within 20 minutes and then that character isn't brought up until the last 10 minutes of the film.
It's kind of strange in a way that her plot was completely overlooked or that there isn't any more romance between her and Paul (thank god).
Usually this is the filler stuff that makes up the minority of the film between the fight and shootout scenes.
But instead they just keep on with the action and mod drama. Charles Bronson just keeps going from place to place assassinating different criminal men and there operations.
Until he eventually gets the big cheese at a meeting between two of the major gangs who think they're out of work each other.
It would have made for a good climax of the film, but then it goes on for an extra 25 minutes and it starts to drag a little bit.
While all of that happening there's a police investigation on the possible Return of the 'Vigilante' that's been brought up in two of the previous films (not Death Wish 3 they just pretend like that one didn't happen).
One of the cops turns out to be crooked working for one of the gangs that Paul was attacking It's also kind of unnecessary to the overall story.
It's weird to see a cheaper action film not take advantage of all its secondary plots to pad out the runtime.
Do you know what there's not in this Film? Rape! Or even crude nudity.
If I remember right, there might be one boob and that's about it.
Otherwise they don't really play up the sex angle and it's honestly refreshing there's all the other Death Wish movies or it's just there for exploitative purposes. We still have a movie that's pushing a very heavy anti-drug message which I don't generally disagree with on how the drugs are being pushed in the film just the overall way we tend to deal with it.
And the weird racial angle is still there as well.
You know all the low drug dealers are black or Latino guys and then all the monsters are kind of Italian looking.
I know Bronson gets portrayed as Native American or Italian in some films but the guy is 100% North European at the end of the day.
It doesn't really make or break a film like this it's just something you notice especially when you watch them all in a row.
Overall this was a fairly decent experience.
It's a low-grade action flick but it's perfectly competent for what it is.
It's probably the best Canon film I've ever seen.
Theres some cheap digital effects from time to time for explosions, the gunshots and fake bullet holes don't match up.
Charles Bronson doesn't actually do all that much physical acting but it's edited it in such a way that it more or less works.
Also I don't want him doing this kind of physical acting anymore. I think the dudes over 70 in this film. This is probably the only Death Wish movie I'd ever re-watch if given the opportunity.
The detective at the end of the film is utter trash.
You just saw Paul blow up a criminal with a grenade launcher that was used in the ending of the Scarface and you're just going to let him walk away!!
Put an end to the cycle man.
Paul has killed like a hundred people at this point and his overall existence has lead to the death of like 15 innocence just by being around him.
This dude is Thánatos incarnate.
The Greek god of death!
You could have been Athanasius in the scenario and saved everyone!!
* So it's always looks a little ridiculous in the Death Wish movies that Charles Bronson would be dating or married to these women that look half his age a lot of the time but now it's getting Ludacris. The woman he supposed to be within this movie could probably be his granddaughter and I'm not trying to say that you can't have vastly different age do couples but it just seems kind of unrealistic in this scenario.
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