My Review of "Death Wish (2018)"

Death Wish is a remake of a 1974 movie of the same name. I have to say that I haven't seen a good revenge movie for quite a while. When this movie first came out I was actually really interested in watching it. Unfortunately the early reviews of this movie were very unfavorable. I was a sheep and blindly believed their reviews. I have been burned by reviews before so I thought I'd check it out. This might not be the best revenge movie I've ever seen but I actually liked it.

This movie starts off in a hospital. The main character Paul is a surgeon at the hospital. He's been getting a lot of patients because there's been a huge spike in gun violence in the city. Fortunately for some of the patients, Paul is an honest doctor and tries to help when he can no matter who they are.

I know it's really corny but they paint Paul's character as a really good guy. He's respectful and follows the law. There's an air of innocence to it because he's a much older man and hasn't experienced any mishaps up until this movie. I don't really care, I went into this movie knowing what I'm getting myself into. I just want the bad guys to break this guy to become a one man vigilante.

That's really what happened. He had the perfect life; he had a great job, a perfect wife, a loving daughter and a close relationship with his brother. One fateful night some armed robbers break into his place while he was at work. They rob the place and shoot both his wife and daughter.

After realizing how handcuffed the local authorities have on the criminal underbelly of the city his faith in the law comes to a halt. He realizes that he has to take matters into his own hands.

I know a lot of people might not like this movie because it kind of perpetuates stereotypical masculine tendencies. As far fetched as Paul is, guys will identify with his character.

A nice thing that they did in this movie is that he makes mistakes. He's not going to know everything right off the bat. There are a few lucky situations that get him out of some hairy situations. Actually there's a lot of coincidental things that happen that saves his butt. Who cares though, the bad guys get what's coming to them.

There are some moral questions that the city starts to ask concerning Paul's vigilantism. Is he right for acting as a vigilante when crime is running rampant? They don't really get resolved but I think the point is that Paul doesn't care what they think anymore. He's been a responsible adult and followed the rules for so long and still there is no justice. Even if what he's doing is bad, he feels better for doing it. He's the main character so we see thing actions through his eyes.

This sort of reminds me of the 2014 movie Voices, starring Ryan Reynolds. In that movie we have sympathy for the serial killer because he was going through mental illness and didn't realize that what he was doing was terrible. In this movie Paul truly believes that his vigilantism is beneficial not only for himself but for the crime ridden city he lives in.

Overall, I had a great ride with this movie. The movie may be predictable and cliche at points but sometimes this is the type of movie we need. Sometimes I don't want to be exhausted by intricate plots and complicated characters. I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. I will be recommending this movie to my friends because it's a simple good guy bad guy movie that we need sometimes.