Willis the walking dead in an elitist ‘Wish’ remake
DEATH WISH
DIRECTOR: Eli Roth CAST: Bruce Willis, Vincent D’Onofrio, Elisabeth Shue, Dean Norris, Kimberly Elise CLASSIFICATION: 18 L V D RUNNING TIME: 1h 47min RATING: ★★✩✩✩
DEATH Wish really is a movie that is a great example of how white privilege operates in society, plus being a lacklustre film on top of that.
The Eli Roth directed action drama comes across as out of place and ill-timed, given the current gun violence situation in the US. In spite of this, the movie is badly edited and has a cringe-worthy plot line, with Bruce Willis sleepwalking his way through the film.
Death Wish is a remake of the 1974 revenge thriller of the same name, in which Dr Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) seeks vigilante justice for his dead wife and comatose daughter after a robbery gone wrong.
Roth’s attempt to update Death Wish falls very flat and has everything in it that is wrong with white-centric films. All the brown and black people are either gangsters or sidekicks and the protagonist literally gets away with murder because of skin colour. Not only that, one of the police detectives by the end of film figures out that Dr Kersey is the vigilante killer, but lets him go anyway.
In the year of Wakanda, it really feels out of place and outdated. Furthermore, Bruce Willis doesn’t even try to act in this film. There is no difference between happiness, rage or any other distinguishable emotion. This man really is a walking, talking zombie in this film.
Some aspects of the film that are updated for modern times come across as unbelievable even by movie standards. For example, Dr Kersey learns how to disassemble and reassemble a pistol via YouTube, which is all well and good, but he also becomes an accurate marksman after a few YouTube tutorials. How is that even plausible?
The supporting cast and their performances aren’t much better, with most of the characters only serving as plot devices, and no discernible character motivations or character arcs. While the action sequences are gory and hyperviolent, they lack proper pacing and never make for anything memorable.
Eli Roth’s attempt to make an updated action vigilante film falls terribly flat, with Willis basically comatose through the whole film.
Films like these are usually shown at this time, as February and early March have been considered to be the dumping ground for bad productions.