Death Sentence
Synopsis
Protect what's yours.
Nick Hume 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 disturbing conclusion that no length is too great when protecting his family.
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Kevin Bacon turns into the ultimate badass and fucks shit up. Spectacularly violent
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This being the second revenge flick I've seen today I can't help but be disappointed by just how bland this is in comparison to the truly beautiful A Bittersweet Life. Worst of all, it starts very promising as a sort of nuts and bolts revenge flick, Kevin Bacon is convincing as the desperate father whose child was murdered, the overall tone fits and the violence is gritty, albeit hard to see at times. The first half is decently entertaining but it soon descends into a clunky mess of bad lighting, overuse of shaky cam and a nasty tacked-on moral superiority that becomes especially clear in the last 5 minutes.
Kevin Bacon is easily the best thing about this and saves…
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A man's son gets killed and he wants revenge, you know the story.
Death sentence is filled with over-the-top action and full of cliches; Kevin Bacon's character survives multiple murder attempts and manages to kill a gang full of professional criminals, how original.
The camerawork was not to my liking either thanks to the constant shaking camera during the action scenes.
I did enjoy it somehow but it had more potential, better luck next time Wan. -
So after Dead Silence, I decided to give Death Sentence another watch.
And although I enjoyed the film the first time around (and this time too) I really took on board the criticism the film gets for being an "anti revenge, revenge movie" this time. I'm aware that Brian Garfield (the author of the novel its loosely based on, which is a sequel to his Death Wish novel) is a fan of the movie, as he felt Winner really missed the point of with Death Wish and its sequels and ended up glamorizing vigilantism and celebrating it, which was not his original intent with the story...But still, that's why people watch movies about vigilante's...it's escapism.
But although as I said,…
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I gotta say I love this film. It's a ultra violent revenge flick and very humorous in parts if you enjoy over the top violence which I do! It's one of those things where someone does what a lot of us wish we could do if faced with a similar situation.
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Brutal and unrelenting revenge saga about Kevin Bacon seeking revenge on the gang of street criminals who murder his family. No plot twists or unexpected reveals, this is straight up violent revenge just as it should be.
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The classic "vigilante revenge" story taken to its most explosive consummation. Unlike other more famous films in its vein, it's not softened by cartoonishness ('The Punisher') or a dated backdrop ('Death Wish').
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When you look past some of the shitty acting and how messy it is, it's actually pretty cool with some great direction.
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A man's son gets killed and he wants revenge, you know the story.
Death sentence is filled with over-the-top action and full of cliches; Kevin Bacon's character survives multiple murder attempts and manages to kill a gang full of professional criminals, how original.
The camerawork was not to my liking either thanks to the constant shaking camera during the action scenes.
I did enjoy it somehow but it had more potential, better luck next time Wan. -
I like James Wan and his movies.
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This thing was a script rewrite and a few different directing choices away from being really good. As is, it's entertaining enough to moderately recommend on its own batshit crazy, logic free merits. The first hour of the film is actually quite good with a few legitimately intense scenes. About an hour in, I think I can pinpoint the exact moment where it goes wrong, and descends into self parody and sadly boring shootouts. The ending tries to pull things back together, and I can see what James Wan was going for... but just because you can recognize what a movie is trying to do, doesn't mean it does it.
Overall, I think I actually enjoyed/like this a lot more than it actually deserves.
John Goodman is wasted. Kevin Bacon is incapable of ever being wasted because he's Kevin ****ing Bacon.
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Interesting to see James Wan deviate from horror. I liked it very much though. Cool to see Kevin Bacon doing something like this too.
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I like a good dollop of revenge. My bet is this will be James Wan's best film he'll ever make.
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This film an angry fucker, isn't it? Bacon chews the scenery and Hedlund is menacing. Wan's action sequences are first-class... especially the epic foot chase. It asks the right questions for a revenge flick and doesn't celebrate its violence, this film perhaps takes it a little too far but all the excessive violence builds towards the correct message. It is rare for revenge-driven films to do that. The film doesn't leave you in a good place, it is as depressing as it is violent, but is worth checking out. Vastly underrated.
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Zugegeben an der Leistung von Kevin Bacon liegt es nicht, dass “Death Sentence” in meinen Augen nicht zu den gelungensten Filmen gehört. Bacon ist ein wirklich hervorragender Schauspieler und kann in diesem Rachethriller sein Facettenreichtum beweisen, doch was hilft der beste Schauspieler, wenn Story und Inszenierung nicht stimmen.
Bei der Inszenierung hat James Wan aus meiner Sicht relativ viel falsch gemacht. Es reicht für mich nicht aus das Stilmittel Gewalt übertrieben einzusetzen um einen spannenden Film zu schaffen. Natürlich ist Selbstjustiz nie ein friedliches Mittel, doch wäre es wünschenswert gewesen, wenn Wan bei seiner blutigen Darstellung etwas zurückgesteckt hätte und stattdessen den ganzen Film etwas subtiler inszeniert hätte.
Doch leider ändern so viele “hätte” nichts daran, dass Wan in erster Linie auf die brutale Schiene gesetzt hat und für mich damit den Film in den Sand gesetzt hat.