Death Wish 4: The Crackdown - Surprisingly good

Love it or hate it, the first 'Death Wish' film was a classic - yes, it had excessive violence, but people enjoyed seeing those responsible get what was coming to them and the movie kind of reinvented the 'revenge' tale for the era.  It then spawned two sequels, 'Part 2' being quite similar, whereas 'Part 3' upped the stakes to more of a straight out 'action' movie.  I think it's fair to say that 'Part 4: The Crackdown' is more of the same.

Originally, Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) lost his wife, then his daughter, then an old friend.  Now, his latest girlfriend's daughter dies of a drugs overdose, therefore Kersey must do what he does best and deliver his lethal brand of justice to those responsible.  Apparently, this was the first 'Death Wish' film to go straight to video, however if you're expecting that to be a measure of how well it was received, it actually went on to be a major hit on the small screen.  It certainly lacks any subtlety or nuance about the script.  It's just Kersey killing drug dealers.  Now, if you think that's a bad thing for a film series that once gave us a horrific insight into crime and the lengths we may go to if it happened to us to 'descend' into mindless action, I guess it's how much you enjoy your action movies.

There's nothing particularly special about 'Part 4,' but, for some reason, it's a damn enjoyable watch.  Perhaps if you excessive violence of the first two films made you a little uneasy, this one is more 'Hollywood' with good guys killing bad guys.  I know I could probably say that it loses points for giving Charles Bronson (another) love interest who's roughly half his age, but she's not in it much and it does seem to be a staple of the franchise!

Overall, 'Death Wish 4: The Crackdown' is nothing you haven't seen a hundred times before in eighties/nineties action films, but it's certainly not a bad movie for any of its clichés.  Just break open a bag of popcorn and don't dwell on the fact as to how a (slightly overweight) man in his sixties can take out one goon after the next with merely a slight tap to the back of the neck.  Out of the first four 'Death Wish' films, this was the one I remembered the least, however, upon watching it recently in over twenty years, I'm actually taken aback with how good/watchable it is.  And bonus points if you spot a young Danny Trejo or Mitch Pileggi among the henchmen!

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that