'It's like killing roaches - you have to kill 'em all, otherwise what's the use?' (Death Wish 3 (DVD))

Member Name: adambrown400

Product:	Death Wish 3 (DVD)
Date:	10/10/09 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fabulous violence

Disadvantages: totally unbelievable

If He Can't Find Justice ... He'll Make His Own!


You haven't seen over the top violence until you have witnessed the last twenty minutes of Michael Winner's Death Wish 3. Almost a hymn to uber-violence, he portrays a New York on the verge of a social meltdown. Everyone owns a gun, and locals are being terrorised by a local hoodlum gang.

Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) arrives back in the Big Apple to visit an old friend. Before he can get there he is brutally murdered in his own home by a group of street punks that now run the local neighbourhood. Bronson, upon finding the body, is immediately banged up for the murder. However, local Inspector Shriker (Ed Lauter) recognises Kersey as the vigilante who disposed of thugs several years earlier and recruits him on an unofficial basis to make the problem with the local thugs to 'disappear'.

So Bronson straps on his guns once again to rid the streets of the punks that killed his friend. With the help of war vet Bennett Cross (Martin Balsam) they vow vengeance on these nutters.

If the Daily Mail were to make a film about the level of street violence in the UK at the moment, they might cite this film as a starting point. It truly is one of the most ludicrous and far fetched films I have seen in a long while and ranks up there very close with the over the top violence in Chuck Norris' 'Invasion USA' or the recent 'Rambo' film.

Bronson is looking way too long in the tooth to be believable as the vigilante who wastes literally hundreds of street punks. In a strange way you wish he could do that some nights in my local town on a Saturday night, but there you go! There is very little emotion in Bronson's acting, which is a little annoying as you might think he would care when his new girlfriend's car is blown up right in front of him, but no he just walks away! If you have seen the recent 'Gran Torino' with Clint Eastwood you will probably enjoy an old guy getting to grips with street punks - here a 64 year old Bronson is running around the streets with a machine gun!

Winner in his last Death Wish film has created a film of very little social merit - just another excuse to show ludicrous amounts of people being killed in funny ways. I was actually chuckling away to myself whilst watching this film, especially the last twenty minutes that are so unbelievable you have to see it to believe it! It's especially funny when the residents of the local area are jumping for joy and dancing in streets whenever Bronson kills another punk. Winner's direction is very basic and garish, if you've seen any of his recent stuff you'll understand what I mean by that. It adds a real trashy undercurrent to the film which makes it well worth watching again - probably with a group of friends and a crate of beer!

In all, Death Wish 3 isn't a bad film, it's a decent slab of entertainment that will have you laughing till the cows come home.

Summary: Uber violence