The remake of Death Wish spent over a decade in development. The film went through several different directors including Sylvester Stallone, Joe Carnahan, Gerardo Naranjo (Miss Bala), and Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado (co-directors of Big Bad Wolves) while Stallone, Liam Neeson and Frank Grillo, and Benicio del Toro nearly starred in the newly re-imagined film. After Eli Roth eventually signed on to direct, Joe Carnahan’s script was rewritten by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, Big Eyes) even though Carnahan receives sole writing credit.
I haven’t seen an Eli Roth directed film for almost as long as this remake has been in the development stages. Like Rob Zombie, Roth seems to have piqued with his debut film (Cabin Fever) and hasn’t really offered fans anything new, intriguing, or different since. Expectations for Death Wish were already low since the film was rumored to be in contention as the secret midnight screening at Fantastic Fest 2017 as attendees threatened to walk out or boycott the screening with loud boos if that actually occurred (thankfully, it didn’t). With how distant I had become with Roth’s filmmaking and the film already being met with seething hatred, I went into Death Wish hoping that we’d at least get some good gore sequences. Somehow Death Wish is still disappointing, underwhelming, and ordinary even with that initial mindset.
For some reason, Bruce Willis decided to portray a doctor by barely speaking above a whisper and after he becomes the vengeful vigilante known on the streets as The Grim Reaper, he suddenly starts yelling with his voice screeching and cracking in a cringing manner that Bobcat Goldthwait would find offensive. Willis’s performance seems to be based on his voice more than anything else as he associates soft vocal tones, crying, and tenderness with the sounds of a titmouse and a short-fused temper, snarky one-liner spewing, and the clumsy gun-handling mannerisms of a vindictive sociopath with the rage-infused commotion of a cyclone. Other performances in the film are even less memorable with Vincent D’Onofrio deciding to play the timid cliche of the menacing character he normally plays and Beau Knapp (The Nice Guys, Super 8) giving off every blatantly obvious creepy vibe an individual could to loudly giveaway his true nature and yet everyone turns a blind eye. Meanwhile, Dean Norris continues to be cast in the standard good cop role he’s become notorious for after Breaking Bad.
It’s odd to be telling you there’s an Eli Roth film out there that turns its head away from blood and gore, but that’s exactly what Death Wish seems to do during the nastiest moments of the film. The revenge thriller shows plenty of blood pooling on the ground or spraying on the wall and bullet wounds all over every inch of the human body, but shows heavier gore in nothing more than a flash. The car sequence in the mechanic shop where Paul uses a scalpel and rubber cement to torture someone is the film’s crown jewel unless you include the most magical bowling ball sequence in existence occurring at the pawn shop a few scenes prior. With someone like Eli Roth at the helm, he has every opportunity to go over the top and be as outrageous as possible but he seems more dialed back here like he’s purposely restraining that aspect of his filmmaking since this isn’t a horror film. That restraint seems to carry over into Paul’s vengeance. Instead of embodying this urban legend that slaughters criminals, Paul is more of an amateur hitman who shouldn’t have been able to continue his explosive killing streak past the first night.
Taking the bowling ball sequence into consideration, Death Wish purposely ignores logic. How Paul gets his hands on his first gun is absolutely ridiculous and things only get worse at the end of the film. Death Wish leaves this message that killing in the name of your family is okay and living happily ever after is possible after taking the law into your own hands, killing for solitary gain, and walking away without doing any jail time is totally plausible since it’s an angry father in America getting retribution for his wife and daughter. With all of the school shootings and gun control issues currently taking place across the country, Death Wish feels like a film that is trying to cram a square peg in a round hole. Paul’s hand wound seems to appear and disappear throughout the film and why would a doctor of all people let a wound get so nasty anyway? He not only has access to top notch first aid supplies, but also has the knowledge of how to keep something like that from getting infected.
The comment about running over a hobo who forcefully washes your windshield at a red light not being a crime is the most humorous part of the film. The way Death Wish incorporates split screen to show how Paul associates surgery with cleaning and disassembling/reassembling a gun is kind of cool, as well. The soundtrack feels misshapen and disjointed jumping from AC/DC’s “Back in Black” to a variety of R&B, rap, and dance and electronic music, but Paul hops around from sketchy neighborhoods to random dance clubs, so “Back in Black” seems the most out of place like Paul stole Tony Stark’s iPod or something.
Death Wish isn’t unwatchable, but it is dreadfully bland and boring to an almost insulting extent. The film seems to cater to obvious action thriller and revenge film stereotypes. I have not seen the original Death Wish franchise, but this is basically what films like James Wan’s Death Sentence and John Wick have already accomplished. When your remake has already been remade better by multiple films since its original release 44 years ago, then why offer a film that doesn’t expand on that in any way? It’s a subject matter that was explored better and more efficiently with films like Blue Ruin and Prisoners; that vengeful streak loaded with unique kills and bloody retribution is all in there but there are worthwhile performances, captivating scripts, and interesting characters to make the experience worthwhile. Death Wish lacks stimulation and an emotional connection of any kind and is the most generic vengeance imaginable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzILu6yyA20
