Death Wish II - A more 'commercial' sequel

The original 'Death Wish' film kind of set the bar when it came for 'revenge' movies of the era.  Ever since then the concept of someone being severely wronged and therefore taking the law into their own hands to even the score has sort of been done to death by now.  Some people say that 'lightning never strikes twice,' however, in the case of Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) he's not so lucky.  In the first film his wife was murdered by a street gang.  This time round it's his daughter and housekeeper (and I won't go into detail regarding the various other people in his life who meet a grisly end - it's safe to say that you really shouldn't hang out with Mr Kersey if you value your life!).  So, Bronson picks up his old ways and goes out for vengeance, only this time in Los Angeles, rather than New York.

Even being the first sequel to the original, you could argue that this film brings little in terms of originality to the overall genre.  However, for some reason, this one seems a bit more 'well put together' than the first, or possibly more 'well-paced.'

Despite its lack of originality, I can't help but see it as an overall better film than its predecessor.  The initial outing was rough and ready whereas this one is overall more polished.  It's hard not to root for Kersey as he (lethally!) cleans up the streets of L.A. Then again, the bad-guys are just that - bad.  In fact, they're almost so bad they become caricatures of what cinema antagonists normally are.  They have nothing in the way of virtuous traits and are simply the personification of evil - so much so that they're almost cartoon-like in the dastardly ways they act.

Bronson's real-life wife Jill Ireland plays his love interest and she's only really there to offer a moral counter argument to Kersey's actions.  If there's a secondary character that's worth mentioning then it's the New York police officer who follows his suspect across the country in order to bring him to justice.  This is a nice touch for fans of the first film and it helps to create a sense that the sequel is definitely set in the same timeline.

Of course it wouldn't be a 'Death Wish' film without a fair bit of extreme violence.  Michael Winner returns to direct this entry and he - again - doesn't hold back when it comes to seeing the worst things humans can do to each other.  You'll need a strong stomach in places, but if you can get over that then you'll enjoy watching Kersey 'taking out the trash' so to speak.

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one