Paul Magne Haakonsen
Funny how the fifth and final movie in the "Death Wish" movies turned out to actually be the best of them all. And it only took them 20 years to improve the formula. Odd, huh?Now, I have already mentioned that "Death Wish V: The Face of Death" is the best of the five movies, and that is attributed to the fact that it had the most mature and well-rounded of all five storylines told in the franchise.Funny how Paul Kersey loses someone he loves in every single movie, and yet he keeps going. Why not just isolate himself in the countryside? Bam, end of tragic losses and deaths.Well, I think that "Death Wish V: The Face of Death" as actually a nice way to tie up the franchise and leave it to rest. Wait, that's not true is it? Not with the 2018 remake with Bruce Willis hitting the cinema.Personally, I think that the "Death Wish" movies will always belong to Charles Bronson, because he embodied the Paul Kersey character and he was the face representing the franchise.If you enjoyed the previous four movies, then you definitely also will enjoy the fifth and final, yes final!, movie in the "Death Wish" franchise.
Prannock
Is this the guy who heads the American Gun Club or whatever? Or is that Charlton Heston. I find it hard to tell those kinds of people apart.Anyway, the movie was a bubbling pile of badly-produced compost, although it did make me laugh in a few places. The star (what was his name again?) reminded me of Charlie Chan after a detectives' party. Or maybe someone from a 2008 remake of Star Trek using the original cast. He did have a nice thick coat, though, which must have got a bit crumpled when he was driving.The guns in the movie made me chuckle, with their bursty-flamey-spurty blue flashes. I love Quake.Still, give it another 10-20 years and it will become a cult comedy.BTW, I didn't think his bird had come out too badly after the mirror episode. A few scratches? Big deal. (But then, it didn't really matter for very long.) I've shagged worse.
TheMarwood
Even at about 109 years old Paul Kersey is still getting the babes. This being a Death Wish movie, this woman is living on borrowed time and like all females in this series, she's going to get riddled with bullets, or explode or get raped. Or a combination of those. After the inevitable, Paul actually runs to her dead body. So he must have really liked this one, because he just walked away from his woman who exploded in part 3 without a care in the world - and walked away from his woman who was machine gunned down in part 4, leaving her corpse on the ground. This one must have been really special to get a couple of seconds of Kersey grieving. With her out of the way, it's time for our favorite serial killer, I mean vigilante to take down the scum responsible. This time it's a group of mobsters led by a mumbling Michael Parks and his idiot henchmen. This film is steeped in 90s cheese and feels like a direct to video entry. The bar was not set high with any of the sequels, but this is bottom of the barrel filmmaking. It can't even deliver a decent death count and the few deaths that happen, even though they try to be comical, they are witless. The worst of the series and a sad footnote in film history as Bronson's final theatrical film.
Scarecrow-88
This time Leslie Anne Down receives a death sentence by becoming involved romantically with architect professor Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson, more than a bit long in the tooth by this point; it was 1994, not 1983 any longer). Down is a fashion designer,named Olivia, once married to Michael Parks' ruthless criminal kingpin. Parks is Tommy O'Shea, his corrupt tentacles spreading throughout all of LA, from prostitution to drugs. He will not allow Olivia to become successful, not too happy that she gained full custody of their daughter. Tommy has Robert Joy's sadistic Freddie do his dirty work, eventually shooting Olivia in the back, with an attempt on Kersey's life as well. No surprise regarding Olivia's fate if you are familiar with the Death Wish franchise. Not to be denied, Olivia not only is shot in the back while trying to escape through a fire escape (after her face was smashed into a mirror by Freddie in drag in a restaurant women's restroom), but she plummets off the roof in slow motion to the top of a another apartment. Look, even by Part 5, the Death Wish series wasn't about to let the women off lightly; particularly, the women in Kersey's life. So Tommy will go after custody of his daughter, Chelsea, despite the fact that he sent Freddie to take out his ex-wife. Kenneth Welsh's exhausted detective loses a partner and witnesses who could finger Tommy for money laundering. So anyone involved with taking Tommy down through the law wind up on the losing end…option B is open and that consists of Kersey going Grandpa Vigilante. Parks' ass is grass. Look, Parks can play the scumbag with such comfort and ease; if you don't want him dead by the time Kersey gets his gun from the safe, then you're a sociopath. That's the whole point of this movie. The criminals are so loathsome and brutish, with a ringleader totally coldblooded and absent a conscience, that Kersey's revenge seems justified. Dwelling on how Kersey rids us of these cretins is of little consequence when Parks has his men use cars as battering rams, a pressing machine to torture, a sewing machine to cut into a stomach, and guns to shoot people in the back. Worse yet, Parks does in fact get custody of his daughter (much to her dismay and disgust), and turns Olivia's fashion company into a tawdry lingerie line. Oh, and there's a supposed friend of Kersey's who is actually dirty and taking money from Tommy to rid the crimelord of the vigilante nuisance. It is all about stacking the deck, of course. How on earth will Kersey not only get vengeance but escape all these people out to get him? Well, one thing's for certain: Kersey is good at killing. If you cross him, get on his bad side, and harm those he loves prepare to die. Parks is so smug, I can only imagine those watching this movie will be waiting with bated breath to see Bronson execute him. Robert Joy is so adept at playing creeps; he may have found a home on CSI: NY, but Joy's made a living playing human vermin. How Bronson uses a "remote control soccer ball" to get even with Joy has to be seen to be believed…it's kind of awesome actually (think of a human inferno). Look, this suffers from the "going to the well one too many times". The last Death Wish (part 4) had been back in '87. By '94, this kind of vigilante action was dying, if not about extinct. That's not to say Parks wasn't game; he's got the goods for portraying a mean bastard who goes after what he wants, and f-all to the collateral damage and bodies left behind. After all Tommy does, we do get the pleasure of seeing each member of his entourage's funeral (those responsible for Olivia's death) when Kersey dispatches them. It all plays out in Olivia's clothing factory/company, with hired gunmen equipped with firepower, as Tommy and his remaining henchman, Sal, holding Chelsea hostage in a room upstairs, await word that Kersey is dead. With use of a cellophane machine, forklift, electrical equipment (sending out sparks and high voltage), and, too cool to leave out, an acid bath, Kersey, only a pistol in hand, will not be denied his chance to capitalize on his vendetta. Parks gets his just desserts in grand fashion. Nothing great (even The Crackdown was better) to speak of, and Bronson, even though he aged extremely well, had too kindly of a face by this time in his career and life to really convince as a one-man army. Still bad-ass geriatric vigilante does kind of have a nice ring to it. But, taking this seriously at all, I doubt many could really accept Bronson in the twilight of his career as walking ammunition. I love the guy, don't get me wrong, but I think he should have laid this part to rest after the awesomeness that was Death Wish III.
