Movie Review: Death Wish (2018)

I am sitting here watching the Oscars –– my version of the Superbowl –– and I felt the need to write Death Wish a review. There is not one point of this movie that will ever end up on an Oscar nomination list, but I still liked it.

Full disclosure, I am almost fifty. I grew up on Bronson and Eastwood flicks that had lots of shooting. Throughout my teens, popcorn flicks with Schwarzenegger and Stallone littered the screens. So, when Willis does a remake of a Bronson classic, yeah, I’m in.

This movie is my fast food. I am hungry, going from Point A to Point B, and I need a drive-thru. There is better and worse drive-thru, and there is better and worse in the mindless action category. Death Wish falls into the better part of the menu.

If you have seen the trailer, you have seen the movie. Successful doctor’s family gets injured or killed by thugs. Feeling frustrated in his helplessness, the doctor gets a gun and looks for some payback.

Really, that is it. You don’t have to worry about spoilers because there is nothing to spoil.  The one left turn I thought they might take in this movie, they didn’t take.

Death Wish leads you exactly where you are expecting you to go. The drive-thru is handing you two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onion, on a sesame seed bun. No surprises. The question is, will that make you happy right now?

For me, the answer was yes. The last twenty seconds of the film hinted at a sequel and I am looking forward to it.


This review originally appeared at Salt Lake Film Review.