Death Sentence (Eli Roth, 2018): A Mainstream Monday Movie Review 

I liked the remake. In particular, I liked that Kersey was looking specifically for the guys who hurt his family as compared to the more generalized hunt for bad guys in the original. It is more vengeance and vigilantism. As for the critics, they gave the film and 18%, but the audience gave it 70%. For comparison: The Brave One - 43% critic, 64% audience John Wick - 86% critic, 81% audience Ms. 45 - 85% critic, 72% audience So what can we learn from this. Well, the vast difference between the audience and critic scores tell me that the critics were judging the Death Wish remake on something other than the quality of the film. That something, in this case, is pretty obvious - anti-gun political agenda. Let us compare to The Brave One, which in terms of plot, generally, is identical. The audience liked it about as much as the Death Wish remake, but the critics give it 43% - significantly higher than what they gave Death Wish. Perhaps it is different when a woman is doing it. The critics gave John Wick an 86%. Now, there are a few differences - Kersey was a normal guy who sought revenge; John Wick was already a killer, probably with a death count in three digits, who was trying to become as normal guy. Also, Kersey only lost his family, but John Wick's dog was killed. I guess helpless acceptance is called for if the victims are human, but if canine, all bets are off. Ms. 45 is very similar to the original Death Wish. Our protagonist gets r-word-that-RU-vid-doesn't-like twice in a single day - once walking home from work, the other at her home. She decides that the best form of therapy is to get a gun, put herself in the way of men, then shoot them if they feel a bit creepy. These guys that she killed weren't even criminals. Note that the critics gave the film an 85%. Note also that the audience scores for all four are roughly similar (John Wick is higher, but he got points for style). In both John Wick and Ms. 45, the critics and the audience generally agreed. There was still a gap between the critics and the audience in The Brave One, which I assume reflects a disagreement between critics as to whether feminism or being anti-gun is more important. As for Death Wish 3, it is bizarre, in in-universe terms, that it could have been made. Kersey's wife is killed and daughter is violated in 1970's New York City, so he goes amateur night Punisher on the criminals in Central Park. Fine. He moves out to LA and *the same thing happens to him again,* with the same response. This is terribly unlucky. One would think, however, that he would take the hint that the universe is giving him and move to somewhere like Cheyanne, WY, or Davenport, IA, or Columbia, TN. But no; he moves back to New York. Keep in mind that this is 1985 pre-Guiliani NYC which was supposedly "ungovernable;" it had yet to become "the safest big city in the world." Then, in Death Wish 4, he goes *back* to LA to get some California killin' done. At this point, Kersey is looking for opportunities to go rogue.