Death Wish (2018): Movie Review

Another weekend, another remake. This one is a relatively ill-timed reiteration of an action classic - Death Wish. The iconic role played out by Charles Bronson of being a manly vigilante is now played by the only old-looking badass that isn't bulky: Bruce Willis.

It's pretty much the same story brought forward to the current times. Shooting related crimes and deaths are high in Chicago so it's the location for the plot. Bruce Willis plays a well-renowned surgeon by the name of Paul Kersey who has worked hard and lives with his beautiful wife Lucy (Elizabeth Shue) and daughter Jordan (Camila Morrone) in a big home, has nice cars and everything is going well for him. Then one night, a band of thieves are at the Kersey residence and it all goes wrong when the robbers confront Paul's wife and daughter. Lucy agrees to their terms to hand over all the valuables but while she's opening the safe, one of the robbers watching Jordan starts trying to molest her. Jordan retaliates and the bad guys shoot at them both. Lucy dies at the hospital while Jordan, though stable, slips into a coma.

As is reel life and often enough real life as well, the cops have so many unsolved cases of gun violence that Paul's is just another on a literal board of many dozens. In his sorrow and frustration with the ineffectiveness of the system, hungry for retribution, he turns to America's favourite solution: a gun.

Director Eli Roth appears to take a very flatline stance on the gun-control issue, raising questions on both sides but not answering any. It's unfortunately timed that a film, considering the most recent mass shooting at a school in USA, which almost seems pro-NRA and in favour of allowing civilians to buy extremely capable assault rifles in the name of self-defence, but that's how the script plays out. 

Bruce Willis has been playing the gun-toting American badass for so long, he couldn't be asked to make it look fresh. As Paul, he just puts on a jacket, flips on the hoodie over his head, takes his Glock out and starts shooting, making it all look a bit too banal for someone who's a surgeon by day and saves lives as a profession. 

The whole vigilante justice theme always gets a cheer from the crowds especially in times when the public feels powerless and without any faith in the system. But it's a slippery slope, a point raised by the media characters in the film, another point that goes unanswered by the writers. Just like when Paul asks if there is paperwork to get through when buying a firearm and the salesperson responds dismissively. Like when he asks his brother Frank (Vincent D'Onofrio), why this tragedy happen upon him when he had done everything right his whole life and the people who had committed the crime were walking around scot-free. When Paul's father-in-law speaks of how the police only arrive when the damage has been done, it is upon a man himself to protect his family from harm. All of which get flatlined, just like Willis' performance.

The original 1974 Death Wish has much more of a storyline that deals with the internal conflict of justifying to do wrong in order to punish the wrongdoers. This modern iteration for fanboys to watch Bruce Willis shoot people up as a vigilante is not worth the ticket price and gets a rating of 3 out 8 cans of pineapple juice. With chunks.