Hoodie-Man, a doctor by day, hoodie-wearing vigilante by night
Where has Bruce Willis been these last few years? Is what I asked myself when I saw that he was the main star of the remake of Death Wish, the last notable cinema release that he was headlining that I can think of is Red 2 all the way back in 2013. To answer the question from before Willis has been kicking it up in a bunch of B rated movies that he clearly has been doing just for the paycheck, which is a shame as when he actually puts effort into a role he is one of the most charismatic dudes around on the big screen. So, Death Wish, not sure this was the right role for him to have a big return to the cinema screens, sure it’s great to see Bruce Willis back, I’ve always been a fan but when you’re doing a revenge movie you need someone that can clearly show the emotional heartbreak and conflict inside them. Although in defence of Willis being cast in this role this movie is clearly going for (or at least turned out to be) a B movie feel and isn’t concerned with realistic performances and accurate portrayals of people, apart from when it tries to be serious and fails miserably.
Death Wish follows the story of Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) a doctor who lives a happy life with his beautiful wife and daughter, while on call at the hospital his wife and daughter are attacked by a group of men inside their home who are after money and valuables. Unpleased with the police not being able to solve the crime Paul decides to take justice into his own hands and becomes a vigilante dubbed as the ‘Grim Reaper’ (literally just wears a hoodie) who saves a woman from a carjacking and a kid from a drug-dealing gangster. But once he finds a connection to the attack on his family he sets out on revenge against the men who committed the crime and won’t stop until justice has been served.
Does that sound familiar? Well, it is a remake of the 1974 Death Wish film starring Charles Bronson and many other countless films have had very similar plots so don’t be expecting anything ground-breaking here. This is where your enjoyment of the film will come into play as it all comes down to your expectations for this one if you’re anticipating a gritty, hard-core and moving revenge film this is most definitely not the film to watch. Although if you’re expecting a dumb, schlocky and utterly ridiculous revenge film then you’re going to have quite the ride watching this as it delivers on some truly logic defying scenes. Especially seeing how people react to things in this film or go about their everyday life, it’s truly amusing and there are also some very stupid death scenes. Interactions with characters are also just very awkward and not natural whatsoever which really makes it hard to care about any of these characters that we are supposed to care for.
The best part of this film is that it’s actually pretty funny in some areas, not laugh out loud funny, but highly amusing and occasionally in some serious scenes unintentionally funny. Now if you’re going into this film hoping to see Bruce Willis go full John McClane on some bad guys in this, then just don’t, because apart from the last scene this doesn’t really happen whatsoever, instead you’ll see a bowling ball fall on a guy’s head and accidentally force the firing of a handgun in that guy’s hand to shoot himself in the head. For a movie that’s rated R18+ in Australia it’s actually pretty surprising how tame the action and violence really is, sure there is one torture scene but I’ve seen the Saw films get away with worse in their MA15+ outings. So if you’re a fan of the director Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel I + Part II, The Green Inferno) and are expecting his usual full on blood and gore lower your expectations as this is the most tame he’s ever been.
Look Death Wish 2018 isn’t going to win any awards or be remembered after a month or so but if you grab a big group of buddies and are expecting to see a pretty dumb film then you’ll likely have a good time watching this. Also, it’s fun to keep a tally of stupid things that happen throughout and the number of times a serious scene is let down by unrealistically dumb people like for an example the bad guy leaves a knife right next to his hostage that is untied… like seriously who wrote this? Hopefully, this film gets Bruce Willis out of doing the B movie crap he’s been in for the last few years and we can see him back on the big screen in some good movies. Don’t go in expecting gold out of this film and you may actually enjoy this turd.