"I'm coming for the rest of your family. You just bought them a death sentence, motherfucker."...( read more)ames Wan's flashy shoot-'em-up vigilante actioner. Certainly, Death Sentence is a dumb and derivative action flick that confusingly switches genres mid-stream. It's also pretentious, unrealistic, implausible, infantile, and it aspires to be taken far too seriously. Nevertheless, director Wan deserves credit for dressing up this knockoff of Death Wish with honest-to-goodness visual flair.
As straightforward pulp revengers go, Death Sentence is disposable but satisfying. Considering the contemporary standard for its genre, you could do far worse than J
Perhaps James Wan is most commonly recognised for initiating the Saw franchise back in 2004. The young, inexperienced director offered a deft handling of the clever screenplay (penned by his collaborator Leigh Whannell from a story they wrote together). In a few weeks and on a paltry budget, Wan had masterfully re-invigorated the horror genre, paving the way for films of its type to follow (including its countless sequels).
The Charles Bronson vehicle Death Wish, based loosely on a novel by Brian Garfield, virtually invented the vigilante film genre whereby an ordinary man transforms into a blood-thirsty soldier hungry for revenge. Countless incarnations have been produced over the decades, using this basic theme to varying degrees of effect. Death Sentence is also loosely based on a Brian Garfield novel (written in the 1970s as a sequel to Death Wish). Even despite Wan's prior success with the original Saw, Death Sentence had plenty of trouble finding its way into cinemas and ultimately fared poorly in its theatrical run - it gleaned less than $10 million domestically.
Nick Hume (Bacon) is a successful business executive who lives an idyllic life with his loving family. Nick's eldest son Brendan (Lafferty) is a trophy winning hockey player soon to be attending a high-class college. However, the family's contented existence is devastated when tragedy strikes. As Nick and Brendan travel home following a hockey match, they reluctantly stop at an unfriendly neighbourhood. Shortly thereafter they encounter a car-load of punks - including one thug who must murder as part of his initiation. Before Nick's eyes, his son is murdered. The murderer is apprehended while the rest of the gang make their escape. The grieving Nick is able to identify the machete-wielding punk, but his sole testimony is the only evidence that the murder took place. Dissatisfied - and as amazed as the rest of us - with the prosecutor's decision to offer the thug a bargain (a prison term of three to five years) as lack of evidence wouldn't bode well in court, Nick retracts his statement and opts to take up the sword of justice himself. In probably the quickest vigilante turnaround ever recorded on celluloid, Nick grabs an implement of death and sets about carrying out the principal of tit-for-tat. Unfortunately, this concept is unfamiliar to the rest of the gang - and Nick has effectively sparked a war which will have tragic consequences on his family.
Tonally, Death Sentence is all over the place. It begins as a family drama before transforming into a shoot-'em-up action-thriller that draws evident inspiration from Taxi Driver and Death Wish. Initially the audience is given a chance to become genuinely involved with Nick and his family. Then, after one irrational act, he's placed his entire family in jeopardy. The events that follow are dramatically incongruous and utterly absurd. The highlight, though, is a spectacularly adrenalised, pulse-pounding, breathtaking chase through the streets and a multiple-storeyed parking station. This sequence features an incredibly long and intricate single take as the camera weaves in, out and around the parking station. This is a most spectacular sequence showcasing the virtuoso skills of Wan and his director of photography John R. Leonetti.
Subsequent to this sequence, Nick lurches forth to an inevitable bloodbath. Absurdity levels are cranked up to 11 as badly wounded, bandage-clad Nick - barely alive - escapes a hospital, eluding unbelievably daft police officers. Director Wan and his evidently enthusiastic technical team work marvels for the consequent final action sequence as holes are shot in walls and limbs are blown off in showers of blood in the realistically grimy sets. This is accompanied by ear shattering sound effects. Despite the competent filmmaking, this climax is a juvenile waste of time. It's chaotic, irritating and unbelievably silly. How can an Average Joe suddenly morph into Rambo on Slim Fast, shooting with such accuracy despite no firearms training? As this scene winds down, the moment of philosophising as two spent warriors recline side-by-side is totally pretentious and preposterous. Despite its unevenness and stupidity, Wan's excitingly shot and directed flick is visceral and gripping, as well as extremely entertaining.
Death Sentence largely works because it's openly aware of what kind of flick it is - a taut revenge actioner wrapped inside a basic but effective morality tale. The film sets out to achieve this title with the same ruthless single-mindedness that Nick exhibits as he pursues the street punks. It seems to continually convey the Gandhi concept that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. There are, however, narrative blunders (including a stupid subplot concerning a younger brother being loved less than his bigger brother) and far too much Hollywood. The gang is pure Hollywood, as they sport tattoos and drive vehicles featuring the same design. There's incredible craftsmanship on offer, but the components are fairly standard stuff.
Loving family torn apart by senseless crime? Check.
Justice system with its hands tied? Check.
Ordinary guy turned proficient, gun-wielding soldier? Check.
Clueless cops? Big check. Aisha Tyler stars as one of the most thankless characters in recent memory as a detective who is unable to figure out why every Bacon shows up with a new cut or bruise whenever a gang member is mysteriously killed.
Ultimately, Death Sentence endeavours to carry on the great tradition of man-pushed-to-the-edge vigilante flicks. But this is such a flawed attempt to revive a genre, yielding a tragically average product. It needed more twists and sparks as opposed to merrily rattling along, adhering to the trite old formula. Trying to pass itself off as a gritty take-the-law-into-your-own-hands action-thriller for the video game generation, it really amounts to an actioner with a catastrophic shortage of action.
Kevin Bacon's watchable performance helps raise Death Sentence above the glut of other revenge-themed films of its type. Bacon's Nick Hume is a respectable man with no prior experience with such violence - he's not a former Special Forces soldier who has been wronged, or anything clichéd like that. At times Bacon looks glum, at other times lively and energetic. He suits the role extremely well, occasionally allowing an audience to overlook the awful screenplay.
Kelly Preston makes the most of the little she has to do, and the two young lads as Nick's offspring look fine. Aisha Tyler is a major weak spot. She's wooden and unbelievable, and her character is poorly written. As for the "baddies", there's Garrett Hedlund (of the Four Brothers fame) as the vicious leader, and John Goodman also has a small but effective role as a gun dealer and father of Hedlund.
Death Sentence is under no delusion of being respectable. It's a flashy, pretentious, ridiculous, laughable exploitation action film that at least features fine filmmaking. It isn't an overly terrible film, but it's not that great either. From start to finish, it's fairly slick and there are a number of extremely entertaining moments. Wan, although handling a flawed screenplay, seems keen to splash around buckets of blood and direct fun shoot-'em-up action sequences.
"Man, I guess there is justice, huh."
Death Sentence
63%
liked it
Death Sentence
Kevin Bacon, Aisha Tyler, Garrett Hedlund, John Goodman, Kelly Preston
Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) is a mild-mannered executive with a perfect life, until one gruesome night he witnesses something that changes him forever. Transformed by grief, Hume eventually comes to the d...( read more
)
Id: 10889340
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Recent Reviews
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May 5, 2009"I'm coming for the rest of your family. You just bought them a death sentence, motherfucker."
...( read more)
As straightforward pulp revengers go, Death Sentence is disposable but satisfying. Considering the contemporary standard for its genre, you could do far worse than J -
April 6, 2009This is a good flick, it draws you in and makes you really get behind Bacon. You want him to find the gang members and kill them, in a world today where everything is PC and people get away with crimes, this is what most would do and I agree. Its hard hitting, violent and makes y...( read more)
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January 13, 2009The only redeeming quality about this movie, for me, is that it was filmed in my hometown of Columbia, SC. It was nice to connect with the sights... but this movie was complete garbage. The beginning reeled you in, then the movie becomes blatantly absurd and unrealistic. You h...( read more)
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December 11, 2008A film that tries far too hard to be deep despite it's basic malevolent content. It tries to make us see the revenge aspect from all sides, but unfortuately fails where a film such as Sympathy For Mr Vengeance succeeded. It starts off pretty good with Kevin Bacon playing the "eve...( read more)
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November 27, 2008When a family falls victim to a vicious attack perpetrated as a gang initiation ritual, the vengeful father, Nick Hume, vows to track down each person involved in the crime. A sympathetic homicide detective questions her pledge to assist Hume after suspecting that he may have tur...( read more)
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December 26, 2009'Death Sentence' is the surprisingly prolific, yet violent Thriller from the director responsible for 'Saw', James Wan.
The movie begins with a happy and, appropriate introduction to Nicholas Hume (Kevin Bacon), and his almost stereotypical family. Nick has a high paid job ...( read more) -
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December 19, 2009'protect what's yours'...this movie is sad but kinda thrilled..
will do anything for family at all costs -
December 14, 2009The movie starts off well, and maintains its pace until around the 1 hr mark...then however it turns into one of those free for all, come-and-get-shot fests!!
Somewhere down the line, the protagonist's wife asks " How could you do what you did?You thought you could...balance th...( read more) -
December 10, 2009Great movie, although would of liked more bloody scenes, (since my whole family was killed and I am already planiing to kill those who did it, why just blow them when you can teach a lesson or two!!!).
