Simply Perfect

Nice effects though.

hyped garbage

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Once again, Charles Bronson plays architect-turned-vigilante Paul Kersey in this fourth film in the 'Death Wish' franchise. Often cited as the weakest entry in the series, 'Death Wish 4' suffers from leaden dialogue (especially when Kersey is consoling his grief-stricken girlfriend) and limited character progression. On the plus side though, the film has a fresh and original plot with a nod towards 'Yojimbo' as Kersey is hired play off rival drug cartels against one another, leading each to believing that the other is trying to sabotage their business. Kersey has some pretty nifty weapons this time too, including an incendiary device in a wine bottle, and with the experienced J. Lee Thompson at the helm, it is a slick-looking production. The opening scene is especially remarkable with clever use of fish-eye lensing and deliberately edited cutaways (in which hoodlums appear and disappear) drumming up incredible tension. There is also well edited sequence later on in which Kersey's gun-fighting gets redirected to a local ice rink, and the open ending is pitch perfect. The plot is arguably a bit too intricate for its own good with a twist in the final third that does not necessarily add a lot to the film, though it does tie in well with the idea of Kersey being used as a pawn to dirty work that could not otherwise be done (an angle sort of explored in 'Death Wish 3' with Ed Lauter's corrupt cop). This might well be a lot different to the thought-provoking original 1974 movie, but as far as sequels go, 'Death Wish 4' is very decent of its type.

Sequel to successful crime thriller that created the Vigilante genre with Bronson as the main star as architect Paul Kersey turned the one-man vigilante when his family is attacked by furious band formed by some ominous punks , as his wife is murdered and daughter reduced to living vegetable ; he then stalks the slums of N.Y. and searching crooks , hoodlums , muggers , pimps making the neighborhood safer and bumping off delinquents and street scum . This fourth entry with excessive violence concerns about Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson was about sixty-five years of age when he appeared in this one), a middle-age New York architect and become again into vigilante . Nowadays , he lives in Los Angeles along with his girlfriend (Kay Lenz) and her daughter . Paul takes on the members of a vicious Los Angeles drug cartel led by Ed Zacharias (Perry Lopez) to stop the flow of crack after his girlfriend's daughter (Dana Barron , though Kay Lenz is only 13 years older than Dana) dies from an overdose. Then Paul Kersey wiping out the bands suppling drugs . This fourth outing from the novel ¨Death wish¨ by Brian Garfield in which an architect taking the law into his own hands and acting as judge , jury and executioner ; it contains suspense, noisy action-packed , intrigue , thrills and lots of violence . Bronson with his usual stoic acting displays efficiently his weapons such as ¨Harry the Dirty¨ and killing mercilessly nasties . Screenwriter Gail Morgan Hickman re-wrote the entire script while filming but Charles Bronson constantly had problems with the dialog . It's certainly thrilling , though the morality may be questionable , even in this time, as the spectators were clearly on the Kersey-Bronson's side . This movie represents the seventh of nine teamings of director J. Lee Thompson with star actor Charles Bronson . Both of whom worked together nine times , this sequel was the only 'Death Wish' movie of the five film series that they made together . The two first collaborated on St Ives (1976), White Buffalo (1977), Cabo Blanco (1980), Ten to midnight (1983) , The Evil That Men Do (1984) Murphy Law (1986). After this movie, they made Messenger of Death (1988) and Kinjite (1989). Furthermore , it appears a nice secondary cast , as George Dickerson , Soon-Tek Oh as obstinate cops , John P Ryan , Danny Barron , Danny Tejo , Mark Pellegrino and as heinous drug baron , Perry Lopez . It packs a screeching musical score composed, orchestrated and performed by John Bisharat , Paul McCallum and Valentine McCallum ; the studio, Cannon : Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan along with executive producer Pancho Kohner wanted a more muscular sounding score for the action scenes and decided to re-use much of the music from their past action efforts Missing in action (1984) and Invasion USA (1985). The original film ¨Death wish¨ had great commercial hit , it was followed by various extremely violent sequels to this successful 1974 movie , that's , of course , the best from the series . This first big hit motion picture was middling directed by Michael Winner such as the successive films with his main star, Charles Bronson , usually giving wooden performance . In the mid-70 Winner , in need to other hit smashes attempted with the sequels , but both , Bronson and Winner , looked increasingly passionless and mechanical in the later years of their partnership in this cheap as well as worn-out final series. The worst sequels in which Kersey goes on to torture robbers , all of them inferior and the violence could be deemed exaggerated , they are the followings : ¨Death wish II¨ by Michael Winner with Jill Ireland , Anthony Franciosa , JD Cannon and Vincent Gardenia , ¨Death Wish III¨ by Winner with Ed Lauter , Martin Balsam and Deborah Raffin . However , Michael Winner showed no interest in directing Death Wish 4 because he had heard that Charles Bronson had a terrible experience filming Death Wish III (1985). And this ¨Death Wish 4 : The crackdown¨(1987) with Kay Lenz directed by J.Lee Thompson and finally ¨Death Wish : The face of death¨(1994)that would be the last and it was then not made for about another seven years , being starred by with Leslie Anne Down , Michael Parks , Chuck Shamata and poorly directed by Allan Goldstein . In addition , an intended but unfilmed sixth movie was also to have a subtitle: 'Death Wish 6: The New Vigilante'.

This Bronson film is not a crime-thriller like the first two films. This 4th film is more like Death Wish III - it's all action and not much of a story. Like the 3rd film in the series, this 4th film has Paul Kersey (Bronson) kicking the bad-guy's. The movie is good if you want a movie that is mainly all action - gun shooting and things being blown up - then Death Wish 4 is a good choice to watch. Film bonus: You will get to watch an 80's arcade room shot up in this film.I personally am more into the first two films which are good crime-thrillers and great vigilante stories. Starting from Death Wish III forward - the film saga turns into simply shoot-them-up action without the great stories like the first two flicks in the series.5/10

Charles Bronson returns again as vigilante Paul Kersey, this time back in L.A., and after the drug dealers responsible for the overdose death of his girlfriend's daughter. Paul is helped by tycoon Nathan White(John P. Ryan) who wants to "hire" Paul to use his skills to eradicate the drug families in the area. Paul agrees(and in a situation similar to "Fistful Of Dollars") goes undercover to bring both crime families down, only to learn that it isn't as simple as that...Interesting to chart this series compared to the similar "Dirty Harry" films, but this franchise declined in quality compared to the other, though Charles Bronson was still quite capable of handling the action, the script and production were weak, with an unconvincing plot and uninspired action scenes making the film seem redundant; unusual ending, which could be looked at as both Bronson/Kersey giving up...though there would be one last film to come.