• Consequence
  • Music
  • Film
  • TV
  • Heavy
Menu Consequence
Menu Shop Search Newsletter
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Live
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Contest
Advertisement
  • Reviews
  • Film Reviews

Film Review: Bruce Willis is a “Good Guy With A Gun” in Eli Roth’s Tone-Deaf Death Wish Remake

Gross in nearly all the wrong ways (and a few of the right ones)

D

Directed by

  • Eli Roth

Starring

  • Bruce Willis
  • Elisabeth Shue
  • Vincent D'Onofrio

Release Year

  • 2018

Rating

  • R
Advertisement
Randall Colburn
March 1, 2018 | 7:00pm ET

    Death Wish is the last movie we need right now. Eli Roth‘s remake of the 1974 original is just as tasteless and tone-deaf as its exploitative trailer promised, with Bruce Willis‘ doctor-turned-vigilante Paul Kersey doling out gunpowdered justice against the milieu of Chicago’s real-life gun violence epidemic after his wife is killed during a home invasion. It’s also gutless. Roth and writer Joe Carnahan — an apropos pairing if ever there was one — repeatedly insert chatter concerning the rising body count in Chicago’s impoverished south side for no other reason than to imply that the city is filled with tatted thugs who need a taste of their own medicine. Truly, in the world of Death Wish, the only thing stopping a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. One wonders which of the film’s producers is a pseudonym for Wayne LaPierre.

    While this approach is most certainly in the spirit of the gun-loving original, it’s fucking exhausting when weighed against our culture’s rising tide of mass shootings and the government’s repeated insistence that the solution is more guns. In Death Wish, gun shops are brightly lit, cheekily advertised, and staffed by beautiful, busty blondes. Jokes are cracked about how easy it is to obtain one, and isn’t it funny how little everyone cares? “Protection” of both the self and one’s family is a sentiment invoked time and again. YouTube tutorials are all it takes to become a proficient killer. And a stroll down a neon-lit city street is all it takes to find someone who deserves to die.

    And just like Charles Bronson did in the original, Willis’ Kersey kinda likes killing thugs. He’s brighter and happier. He’s sleeping better. It helps that he’s being called a “guardian angel” by the sobbing black woman he saves from a car-jacking, even if the media has labeled him the Grim Reaper. Real-life radio personalities Sway and Mancow individually discuss the pros and cons of this reaping — Sway, a black man, is against it, while far-right firebrand Mancow is, unsurprisingly, gung-ho — though it’s baffling that Death Wish seems to believe there’s a rational debate to be had about whether or not a white dude gunning down people in the streets is a good thing.

    (Read: How Eli Roth’s Hostel Tapped into America’s Post-9/11 Fears)

    Advertisement
    Related Video

    It’s not as if there isn’t a place for vigilante revenge flicks in this culture. The John Wick series, for example, has proven to be a delight, mainly because it cultivates an original world enhanced by a clear directorial vision that frames its ultra-violence as spectacle, not catharsis. Roth has no such vision here; his drab, listless Chicago is either the sunny land of Michael Jordan and deep dish pizza, or a damp cesspool where danger lurks around every corner. It’s an outsider’s vision of Chicago and, as such, lacks any sense of perspective or familiarity. You can’t just mention Lollapalooza. You can’t just mention Lake Shore Drive.

    But here’s the thing: Though Roth fails at establishing an immersive sense of atmosphere, his direction really comes to life during the film’s grand setpieces, whether it be a shootout in a seedy bar or showdown in a garage. It’s here that his gory sense of ingenuity — the spark that made films like Cabin Fever and Hostel 2 so perversely watchable — begins pooling toward your toes. His use of practical gore effects, and the unwavering eye he applies to sadistic torture, should be satisfying for fans of his previous shockers. Sequences such as these also place his stamp on what might otherwise be a rote, offensive remake of a film that has no purpose being revived today. Say what you will about Roth as a cultural entity, but the enthusiasm he brings to upholding the gore of yore remains distinctive.

    Roth’s early work was inspired because it existed in its own bubble. He wasn’t trying to make a statement. Like the movies he grew up on, it was gore first, story second, and message a distant, distant third. Were that also the case with Death Wish, the movie would probably function as a perfectly fine, if mostly forgettable, vigilante flick. But there’s something distinctly odious about a storyteller exploiting both a city’s tragic reality and a country’s debate about firearms to make a film that thrives on violence.

    Advertisement

    Read the room, man.

    Trailer:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
Advertisement

Actors

  • Charles Bronson
  • Eli Roth

More on this topic

  • Bruce Willis
  • Dean Norris
  • Death Wish
  • Eli Roth
  • Elisabeth Shue
  • Film Review
  • Joe Carnahan
  • Remake

Sign up for updates

Subscribe to our email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.

Advertisement

Popular Stories

quavo offset fight grammys 2023 takeoff tribute in memoriam

Music

Quavo and Offset Got into Physical Fight over Takeoff Tribute at 2023 Grammys: Report

Ozzy Osbourne

Heavy Consequence

2023 Grammys: Ozzy Osbourne Wins Two Awards [Updated]

Advertisement

 Score High Quality Hemp at a Serious Markdown.

Score High Quality Hemp at a Serious Markdown.

AMC Theaters Will Price Movie Tickets Based on Seat Location

Film

AMC Theaters Will Price Movie Tickets Based on Seat Location

SNL Casts Pedro Pascal in Dystopian Mario Kart Parody

TV

SNL Casts Pedro Pascal in Dystopian Mario Kart Parody: Watch

Latest Stories

B-
Skinamarink Review Kyle Edward Ball

Skinamarink Review: Great Experimental Horror That May Leave You Unsatisfied

February 3, 2023

B
Knock at the Cabin (Universal Pictures)

Knock at the Cabin Review: M. Night Shyamalan Offers a Chilling Treatise on Belief

February 3, 2023

Groundhog Day Bill Murray Anniversary

Groundhog Day at 30: Bill Murray Finds Freedom While Trapped in a Nightmare

February 2, 2023

Sundance 2023 Film Reviews

Sundance 2023 Review Roundup: The Best Films We Saw This Year

January 30, 2023

A-
Infinity Pool Review Alexander Skarsgard

Infinity Pool Sends You Down a Road of Hedonistic Excess (In a Good Way): Review

January 27, 2023

B+
Netflix You people

You People Review: Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill Star in a Funny and Refreshing Update of a Familiar Tale

January 27, 2023

B-
Jamojaya Rich Brian Sundance Review

Rich Brian Juggles Family, Music, and Culture in Jamojaya: Sundance Review

January 25, 2023

B-
Cat Person Review Nicholas Braun

The New Yorker Bad-Date Story Gets Frustratingly Literal in Cat Person: Sundance Review

January 25, 2023

Advertisement

News

  • Music
  • New Music
  • Album Streams
  • Upcoming Releases
  • Tours
  • Film
  • TV
  • Pop Culture

Reviews

  • Music Reviews
  • Film Reviews
  • TV Reviews
  • Concert Reviews
  • Festival Reviews

Features

  • Editorials
  • Interviews
  • Cover Stories
  • Lists
  • Guides
  • CoSign
  • Song of the Week

Live

  • Tickets
  • Festival News
  • Tour Dates
  • Photo Galleries
  • Music Instruments & Gear

Heavy

  • News
  • Interviews
  • Concerts

More

  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Wellness
  • Giveaways

Other sites

  • Heavy Consequence
  • Consequence Media
  • Modern Drummer
  • About
  • Privacy policy
  • Advertising
  • Work For Us
  • Terms
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Download our app

  • Get it on the App Store
  • Get it on Google Play
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitch
  • Tiktok
Consequence
Current story

Film Review: Bruce Willis is a "Good Guy With A Gun" in Eli Roth's Tone-Deaf Death Wish Remake

Menu Shop Search Newsletter
Consequence
News
  • News
  • Music
  • New Music
  • Album Streams
  • Upcoming Releases
  • Tours
  • Film
  • TV
  • Pop Culture
Reviews
  • Music Reviews
  • Film Reviews
  • TV Reviews
  • Concert Reviews
  • Festival Reviews
Features
  • All Features
  • Editorials
  • Interviews
  • Cover Stories
  • Lists
  • Guides
  • CoSign
  • Song of the Week
Live
  • Tickets
  • Festival News
  • Tour Dates
  • Photo Galleries
  • Music Instruments & Gear
Podcasts
  • The Opus
  • Kyle Meredith With...
  • Stanning BTS
  • The Story Behind the Song
  • The What
  • Going There with Dr. Mike
  • The Rome and Duddy Show
Videos
  • Interviews
  • Two for the Road
  • First Time I Heard
  • When I Made
  • Battle of the Bandmates
  • Peer 2 Peer
  • Essays
  • Fan Theories
Heavy
  • News
  • Interviews
  • Concerts
  • Premieres
  • Culture
  • Beyond the Boys Club
  • Mining Metal
Shop
  • Shop
  • Giveaways

Follow Consequence

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitch
  • Tiktok
Close
Close