Shout! Factory
Note: This does not reflect the current health diagnosis of Bruce Willis. Whether or not he was already suffering from dementia when the film was released is not taken into account).
Remember when Joe Carnahan was going to be the next big serious action director?
Narc was pretty great. Smokin’ Aces wasn’t great, but it was fun. The Grey was so good. The A-Team was…well, it was The A-Team. What do you want?
Now he’s writing this bullshit?
Ok. First problem: Bruce Willis.
I love Bruce even though he’s basically given up at this point.
Throw a couple bucks at him and he’ll walk through your movie like he’s grabbing a burger.
But he’s definitely not Paul Benjamin, the main character of the books. He’s closer to Paul Kersey, the main character of Charles Bronson’s movie series, but he’s still not him. Bruce Willis will never be an “everyman.” It’s not in him. He’s the guy who will kill the fuck out of you if you cross him, but he’ll be your best friend if you don’t.
Second problem: This is an Eli Roth film through and through. I’m alright with Eli, but maybe inserting your torture porn dreams into this kind of story isn’t quite right. The entire scene where Paul is torturing the guy with the break fluid is just Eli saying, “Remember me? I directed the Hostel movies! YEAH!!”
Third problem: Once again, the point is missed. Paul Benjamin/Kersey is not the good guy. He’s a man driven to the edge by the murder of his wife and the near death of his daughter. He’s made sick by what he’s doing until he starts to enjoy it. This version of Paul enjoys it immediately. He’s laughing about it in his therapy session. He’s doing what every right wing gun nut thinks that they’re going to do when they buy their arsenals: he’s killing the bad guys, relishing every minute of it, and getting away with it.
Extras include commentary, deleted scenes (with optional commentary), making of featurette, extended scenes, trailers and tv spots.
There were enough differences between this and both of the original stories that Eli and Joe could have called it something besides Death Wish and it would have been just another generic vigilante movie. Brian Garfield, author of the original novel, died the year this came out. If he saw it, I’m pretty sure it’s what killed him. (He was vehemently anti-vigilante.)
What did they get right? Well, the portrayal of America’s gun culture was pretty spot on. “Ask for Bethany!” Fucking sickening.
Yeah. Not a good movie. Had its moments of being kind of fun, but not enough to get past the awfulness.
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