gorf
Death Wish 2 is one of the most disgusting and immoral "mainstream" movies from the 80s. It makes the rest of the Death Wish movies look like cinematic masterpieces. It makes me want to rewatch "Death Sentence" with Kevin Bacon. It's pointless and cruel...it's scene after scene of ugliness and sadism. Some people actually defend the pornographic scene where the maid is raped and killed, saying stuff like: "the director wanted to show how awful rape really is!" Yeah, thank you Michael Winner (ironic name), for showing us that it's wrong to rape and murder people. What? Not one, but TWO rape scenes in the same movie? How generous.No wonder the author of the novel hated these movies. They completely miss the point. The point of the novel is that revenge and vigilantism is a bad idea. This movie does the opposite...and even then, it fails, because there's no hero to root for in DW2. He doesn't accomplish anything good...he just kills a bunch of scumbags. What a pointless movie.The Death Wish movies are often labeled as "right-wing" fantasies, but that's not entirely true. It combines the worst elements from both worlds. Right-wing extremists will love the "guns and violence solve everything" stuff. And there's nothing leftists love more than sexual deviance, profanity and eeevil Christians.This year, a new version of Death Wish came out. Judging from the trailer it's just more of the same sadistic garbage. Don't waste your time or money.
ma-cortes
Once again , Bronson/Kersey blows away baddies with lots of explicit , eerie and grisly violence . Extremely violent follow-up to the successful 1974 movie based on the characters written by Brian Garfield , whose novel the picture is based on . This sequel was made and released about eight years after Death Wish (1974) . Second entry in the original five film series in which Kersey takes the law on his own hands ; nowadays , he has a new sweetheart in his life , the beautiful Geri Nichols (Jill Ireland) , a radio anchor woman . When Kersey and family are mugged by some attackers , he , then , seeks vengeance . As Paul searching for vendetta against cutthroats when his daughter -who is still catatonic from the previous attack- is victimized again . The five-times-weary urban vigilant hits villains , this time , hard . Following to successful crime thriller that created the Vigilante genre with Bronson as the main star as architect Paul Kersey (wooding acting by Bronson who looks bored and tired with this rehash material) turned the one-man vigilante and he tries to find the five sadistic street punks who attacked his daughter and housekeeper , this time on the dark streets of Los Angeles . Meanwhile , being pursued by the astute Police Inspector Det. Frank Ochoa (Vincent Gardenia) , as usual . This second routine entry with excessive violence concerns about Paul Kersey , an ageing architect who becomes again into vigilante and wiping out the band of mobsters . The main amusement results to be to guess the kinds of deaths that Bronson executes against the villains , as he carries out retribution and vendetta . This is 2ª outing from the novel ¨Death wish¨ by Brian Garfield in which an architect taking the law into his own revengeful hands and acting as judge , jury and executioner . It contains suspense, noisy action-packed , intrigue , thrills and lots of violence . Initial excitement at the welter of violence son palls into boredom , only intermittently relieved by the preposterousness . Mediocre screenplay manages a couple of nice twists , but it's too formulary to pursue the ambiguities it reveals . Here filmmaker emphasising a hostile , nightmare terrain and relying his virtually sympathies with the confused , violent Paul Kersey . Bronson with his ordinary stoic acting displays efficiently his weapons such as ¨Harry the Dirty¨ and killing mercilessly nasties . Screenwriter re-wrote the entire script while filming but Charles Bronson constantly had problems with the dialog . It's certainly thrilling , though the morality may be questionable , even in this time, as the spectators were clearly on the Kersey-Bronson's side . Furthermore , it benefits from some good support actors , as here appears a nice secondary cast , such as : Vincent Gardenia , J.D. Cannon , Anthony Franciosa , Robin Sherwood , Thomas Duffy , Robert F. Lyons , and a young Larry Fishburne as ominous hoodlum , among others . It packs a screeching musical score composed, orchestrated and performed by guitarist Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin . Atmospheric cinematography by two great cameramen : Thomas Del Ruth and Richard H. Kline .The studio , Cannon : Yoram Globus, Menahem Golam , produced this one in enough budget . This was the first film that both star Charles Bronson and director Michael Winner made with Cannon Films and producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus . The two would make a number of movies with them throughout the 1980s, including one more together, Death Wish III (1985). The motion picture was poorly directed by Michael Winner and the production shoot on this movie went for forty-four days . Michael Winner career was failed , alternating some hit as ¨the sentinel¨ and various flops as ¨Firepower¨, ¨The big sleep¨, ¨The wicked lady¨, ¨Appointed with death¨, ¨A chorus of disapproval¨, ¨Bullseye¨ and ¨The stone killer¨. Although he also achieved some important successes as the ¨Death Wish¨ series . The original film ¨Death wish¨ had great commercial hit , it was followed by various extremely violent sequels to this successful 1974 movie , that's , of course , the best from the series , being starred by Hope Lange , Stuart Margolin , William Redfield and Jeff Goldblum . This first big hit motion picture was middling directed by Michael Winner such as the successive films with his main star, Charles Bronson , usually giving wooden performance . In the mid-70 Winner , in need to other hit smashes attempted with the sequels , but both , Bronson and Winner , looked increasingly passionless and mechanical in the later years of their partnership in this cheap as well as worn-out final series . The worst sequels in which Kersey goes on to torture robbers , all of them inferior and the violence could be deemed exaggerated , they are the followings : ¨Death wish II¨ by Michael Winner with Jill Ireland , Anthony Franciosa , JD Cannon and Vincent Gardenia , ¨Death Wish III¨ by Winner with Ed Lauter , Martin Balsam , Gavan O'Herlihy and Deborah Raffin . Death Wish 3 that would be the last and it was then not made for about another seven years . However , Michael Winner showed no interest in directing Death Wish 4 because he had heard that Charles Bronson had a terrible experience filming Death Wish III (1985). Following ¨Death Wish 4 : The crackdown¨(1987) with Kay Lenz , John P Ryan , Perry López , Soon-Teck-Oh directed by J.Lee Thompson . And ¨Death Wish , the face of the death¨ by Allan A. Goldstein being starred by with Leslie Anne Down , Michael Parks , Chuck Shamata , Saul Rubinek , Kenneth Welsh and Miguel Sandoval . In addition , an intended but unfilmed sixth movie was also to have a subtitle: 'Death Wish 6: The New Vigilante'.
Uriah43
After essentially being chased out of New York, "Paul Kersey" (Charles Bronson) has relocated from Chicago to Los Angeles in an effort to start life all over again. Living with him is his daughter, "Carol Kersey" (Robin Sherwood) who is gradually recovering from the trauma she experienced in New York which resulted in her father becoming a vigilante in the first place. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, a gang of young men break into his apartment and after severely beating Paul and killing the housemaid, "Rosario" (Silvano Gallardo) forcibly take Carol with them. Later on she is gang-raped and dies attempting to escape. This event results in Paul returning to his vigilante ways and his specific targets are those who participated in the death of his daughter. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, other than the location and the introduction of a couple of new characters, this film mirrored the first movie to a very great extent. Even so, it was certainly watchable and for that reason I have rated it as slightly above average.
Spikeopath
Michael Winner once again pushes the buttons of Hollywood with this sequel to his controversial hit, Death Wish. Plot follows a familiar trajectory, Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is now in Los Angeles living a normal life, when wouldn't you know it, some scumbag youths cross his path after administering some rape and pillage on folk close to him...The problem here, and the reason why some critics positively burst blood vessels after watching it, is that for the first half it just is pure exploitation, this in spite of some decent production value. Did it really need to be another sex crime? Could it not have been a murder et al? There gets a point in the film where you sense it's boobs for boobs sake. Though you have to wonder if Winner dared to ask Chuck and Jill Ireland (playing girlfriend of Chuck...) if Jill would do a nude scene? I think a broken nose may have come about if that subject had of been broached...Once Kersey (Bronson hard as nails again) goes about dealing out his brand of justice, the film hits its straps, teasing the viewers with moral - cum - ethical outrage or conversely, vicarious thinking. Vigilante films are always going to swim in tricky waters, provoking anger and heated debate from all walks of the political spectrum, but better to have them out there to provoke a response than not. Surely?There is nothing remotely high end here, but it's a film worthy of its above average rating on IMDb. It can shock, annoy, dismay and even induce unintentional mirth (three of the rapist thugs dance the campiest dance ever), but it will not be ignored and people are still seeking it out today to watch for the first time. Michael Winner still showing the ability to pique interest with his vigilante franchise. 6.5/10
