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Death Wish 2

Death Wish 2

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $11.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Comon, it's not that bad!
Review: First off, yes this film is worse than the first. But aren't most sequals? Would you rather be watching one of 2002's worst films Crossroads? Or how about Beverly Hills Ninja, or even Baby Genuises. There are DEFINATLY worse films than this to pick on.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A sequel far from equal to the first.
Review: For some reason it took 8 to 9 years for there to be a sequel made to the movie that most people associate with Charles Bronson. It wasn't worth the wait. Even revisiting the movie on DVD (sadly full frame, at least they could have restored it to its proper aspect ratio) did not improve my original thoughts on this follow up. Death Wish 2 is to Death Wish what Jaws 2 was to Jaws, a sequel that attempts to pass itself off as a continuation of the first film but largely recycles its plot and most memorable moments. Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is now living in Los Angeles and he has had his still mentally withdrawn (and actually younger looking) daughter Carol moved to a nearby facility. Evidently her husband left her, as that character is not mentioned this time out, even in passing. When Kersey and his new girlfriend (played by Bronson's real life wife Jill Ireland) take Carol out for some quality family time, Paul is attacked by muggers who steal his wallet. Of course Kersey gives chase and manages to pound one mugger against a wall, but they still have his wallet - which contains his address and, of course, the muggers are gunning for revenge. This is obviously meant to recreate (or homage) the set-up for the attack by a trio of thugs who get the Kersey home address at the supermarket in the first Death Wish. The muggers attack the Kersey household, sexually assaulting both the housekeeper as well as Kersey's daughter (again), both of whom die. The major difference from the first movie is that Kersey is there and thus knows just who to hunt down after a little alone time. In the first Death Wish it was a business trip to Tuscon, in Death Wish 2 it's a weekend at a friend's rustic cabin. The rest of the movie is basically Bronson wandering around the seedier areas of Hollywood until he finds his prey - that and avoiding his girlfriend while trying to keep her clueless about what he is doing at night. Death Wish 2 delivers on the violence and sleazy exploitation, but it misses the mark in even attempting to create a compelling story. Despite there being ample oppurtunity to do so. Some Bronson fans will no doubt want this, put it remains a poor follow up to a truly great movie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Vile and disgusting.
Review: Former action superstar Charles Bronson and director Michael Winner made some great (and a few entertainingly not so great) movies together. This is not one of them. The sad fact is that Death Wish 2 is a vile and disgusting pile of cinematic sexual sadism. It features one of the most brutal and graphically disturbing rape sequences ever captured on film. Making matters worse is the grainy porno film production values. An all time low for the Bronson/Winner team. Strictly for fans of I Spit on Your Grave.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: bad but oh so good
Review: Gritty and trashy flick about vigilante Paul Kersey hunting down the creeps who preyed on his family - just like the ones who preyed on his family in the first Death Wish! LOL! Don't take this serioulsy and just enjoy the mayhem, weird/cool Jimmy Paige music, the 80's exploitation movie grime, and Bronson's Paul Kersey who is just too damn cool.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: 1 of the worst movie of the 20th century!
Review: i saw DW2 the other night unedited for the very 1st time. i use to see it on regular tv with the nasty stuff cut out. seeing this now made me sick to my stomach! very repellent violence! charles bronson looked oh so wooden here. it also has the dumbest thing a thug would do to protect himself. see, bronson trails the baddies (who raped his daughter and killed his housekeeper in nauseating detail) to a park where some drug deal is going down. a shootout ensues between bronson and the thugs. 1 guy runs away WHILE PROTECTING HIS FACE WITH HIS RADIO BOOMBOX! you would think it can stop bullets right? charlie shoots thru the radio, sparks fly and the bad guy get his face blown apart ruining my dinner! i even hated the 1st DEATH WISH to begin with. i sadly saw all 5 chapters! i hope DW2 never ever shows up on DVD. i can't wait for AMERICAN NINJA 2 to show up on DVD. that is 1 sequel i like.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: descent death wish
Review: I thought this death wish was not a bad one. It had somewhat of a continuous storyline to it. Basically how the punks kill his daughter and the police don't seem too helpful in hunting down the killers. THerefore, he becomes the vigilante and blows away each mugger one by one. This is not a bad movie but the rape scene should be short and concise beacuse it takes away the value of death wish 2. All in all, I would simply recommend buying the VHS version of this film rather than the dvd because it's something which isn't really the greatest death wish but has a good soundtrack with jimmy page. However, I would recommend buying death wish 3 on dvd because that is a real classic!!!!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Why oh why?
Review: Like the Rambo films, this drivel is a prime example of why NOT to make a sequel to perfectly good original. Indeed, as Margaret Hinxman wrote in the Daily Mail, Death Wish 2 is "The sort of sequel that makes you realise that the original wasn't half so bad as you thought".

In this one the plot is identical. The twist is that it's set in a different city. A bunch of crooks attack his family again. The difference is that whereas in the original the rape scene was a not too graphic short sharp shock, in this film it is leeringly drawn out. Is this to show how vile crime and criminals are? Perhaps. Does it feel shoehorned in for pervs? Certainly.

After this Kersey goes on the rampage again, and this is where the film gets silly. Part of the strength of the original Death Wish film is that Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) never actually tracks down the crooks who attack his family. Whilst condoning vigilantism, it still feels a little hollow that those guys got away. Like the brilliant, but criminally unavailable 'Joe' with Peter Boyle, there is an emptiness to the revenge.

Here, Kersey is trawling Los Angeles looking for targets. Now I haven't been to L.A., but I imagine it's pretty big. You know, you're not too likely to keep bumping into the same people at random. Well, you're not Charles Bronson. While out one night, Kersey stumbles across the same hoodlums who attacked him earlier in the film! Fancy that. As if this stroke of luck was not enough, later on he's strolling around when he hears a scream. He goes to investigate and, in the peculiar haze of sexual violence in which this film operates (there is one gang rape, one rape and another attempted rape), he comes across a rape. But, get this, the rapists are some of the gang who attacked him earlier!

Now how's that for luck!

It gets one star for two reasons. First, the hilarious bit when Laurence 'Othello' Fishburne tries to shelter from machine gun fire behind his ghetto blaster (it doesnt work), and second, I cant give it less.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: best of the series
Review: My personal favorite of the series. MGM used to be the leader in releasing older catalog titles with pride but they seem to have lowered their standards much to the fans dismay. Why would you release this DVD in fullscreen? Region 2 has a widescreen DVD on this title. What a letdown from MGM....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: MGM gets sloppy.....
Review: My personal favorite of the series. MGM used to be the leader in releasing older catalog titles with pride but they seem to have lowered their standards much to the fans dismay. Why would you release this DVD in fullscreen? Region 2 has a widescreen DVD on this title. What a letdown from MGM....

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A tragic, horrifying waste of celluloid, yet I am transfixed
Review: No one would ever mistake this film for art, but I defy any lover of bad cinema to shut this off without healthy laughter. From Jimmy Page's off-the-wall score to the hamminess of a young Larry Fishburne, this unnecessary sequel has charm oozing out of every frame. Ridiculous deaths, stilted dialogue, continuity errors galore, and cardboard characters.


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