Architect Paul Kersey moves from New York to Los Angeles. And along with him, every conceivable and inconceivable misfortune seems to move in. Most recently, Kersey’s wife died. And now a gang of scumbags rapes and murders his maid and his daughter commits suicide. It’s time for Paul to take up arms again and go out on a night hunt…

4k movies reviews
In the first minutes, while making panoramic circles of Los Angeles to the sound of the radio warning of new outbreaks of violence in the city, the camera stops for a second at the “Hollywood” sign. The creators, it seems, apologize in advance for a very mediocre script, hiding behind the fact that it’s just a movie. But really, for this entire short-lived film, there is just a whole series of ridiculous, clichéd, and sometimes just plain stupid situations. It happens when producers, forgetting everything, want to revive a once-popular film, in this situation, the classic, benchmark revival thriller “Death Wish” (1974). Compounding the situation is the fact that Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus, who financed mostly second-rate films, are in the producer’s chair.

Although, during their careers as producers, they have also had some very venerable directors working with them. John Frankenheimer, John Cassavetes… The British director Michael Winner never rose to their level, but still, for a long time he was considered a pretty good craftsman, who produced some decent films, including the first part of the Paul Kersey franchise. But only his second film, Death Wish, was the ultimate departure for him into the category of second-rate cinema, if not in terms of budgets, then certainly in terms of artistic level.

It is difficult to say what guided the director, taking almost an autoremake of the first film. But if the tape in 1974 seemed like a real tragedy of a man who by the will of fate became a hunter, “Death Wish II” (1982) looks contrived and stupid. It’s as if Paul Kersey was born under an unlucky star, and all of his family and friends are somehow destined to die when happiness seems to have been found. Moreover, everything develops in the tradition of the first part, right down to the direction of some scenes, suffice it to recall at least the attack of the bandits on the house, which is almost identical to the episode of the attack from the first film. But against the background of these repetitions, it seems very strange that Bronson’s character has changed dramatically. From a gloomy, withdrawn and thinking killer he suddenly turned into a cynical joker.

Among the merits of the picture it should be noted the music of Jimmy Page, which is not very successfully used in the film, for which it probably received its nomination for the “Golden Raspberry”. Bronson tries to play off his character and all the silliness of the script, but he is nowhere near the level of psychologism and intensity he achieved in the first film. The fight scenes are also not badly choreographed. And they once again emphasize the fact that this opus by Winner is more a dynamic action movie than an urban thriller. Still, apart from the action sequences, there is nothing to note in general. The film is shot pretty standard, in the tradition of action movies of the 80’s. Both the cameraman and the director succeed only in some moments.

In the year of release, the film, even if it was a success at the box office, for the most part, it was still perceived negatively. However, there is nothing surprising in this fact. By taking the initially controversial material, the director manages to turn what is happening into a pure farce. This same farce lay well on the third film of the franchise – also far from ideal. But there at least the satirical beginning is felt, which actually makes it superior to this work. Here, however, everything is unstable – Death Wish II is too serious for satire, silly and comic for drama. The result is a kind of speculative action movie. With its merits, but also with a great many flaws. In spite of this, it is overall better than many of the films produced by Golan and the Globe, but if one compares it to the first film or any of the big name revival thrillers, the second part of Death Wish is much inferior.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (87.6 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles
English SDH.