Death Wish...The Season of Remakes #movie_reviews

A remake of the Charles Bronson 1974 movie, Death Wish with Bruce Willis entertains.
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Paul Kersey (Willis), a trauma surgeon, lives in Chicago, where deaths happen every night. He’s good at his job, putting back together both the heroes and the bad guys. A family man, his daughter is leaving for college in the fall. The perfect family.

​When thugs decide to rob the house, expecting no one home, things go awry. His wife, Lucy (Elizabeth Shue) is killed and his daughter, Jordan is left in a coma. Dr. Kersey does everything by the book but the Chicago PD lack the leads to find the suspects, leaving Paul frustrated.

​After witnessing a couple of thugs manhandling a woman, Dr. Kersey decides to stop playing by the rules and teaches himself to shoot. Taking matters into his own hands, he becomes “The Grim Reaper”, a vigilante who sets to protect those who are victims. When a thug comes into the ER wearing Dr. Kersey’s watch, he gets the break he needs to find those men who attacked his family.

​Bruce Willis is back as a kick-butt character, similar to his Die Hard one. Now bald and a little older, Willis still is able to handle a gun and witty banter before he kills someone. He carries the movie as he moves from surgeon to vigilante. 

​The director Eli Roth does a nice job of updating the movie for 2018 with radio stations and television shows debating the use of violence versus protecting those who are unprotected. It’s an interesting debate in light of recent events. In addition, social media and viral video show how quickly information is shared around the world. While some pieces remain the same from the original, this movie has a “new” feeling. 

​Although it will keep you on the edge of your seat with the violence and action, it’s not a movie you need to visit the theater to see. The cheap seats or on your TV would be just as fine. Save the money for those spring blockbusters.