Undescribable Perfection

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Like every Hollywood movie rife with firearms mistakes. No ejected casings, Glock All wrong, a gun shop in Chicago ? I DOUBT IT.

Comparisons against the Charles Bronson "Death Wish" are inevitable, the main difference being that with the passage of four decades, this Bruce Willis vehicle is much slicker in production values and doesn't seem quite as gritty as the original. By gritty, I'm thinking about Bronson's loading up an old sock with a couple rolls of quarters and using it as a nifty weapon. But then again, as a medical surgeon, Willis's character had the advantage of knowing just how and where the most excruciating pain can be administered to the human body. I guess it was a pretty conscious decision on the part of the film makers to place the story in Chicago where the weekly murder rate routinely makes the headlines today. The crime that sets in motion Paul Kersey's mission of revenge is similar to the 1974 picture, and a concession made to the outcome has Kersey's daughter Jordan (Camila Morrone) pretty much recover from her serious injuries. Where the present day picture differs is in the way Willis's character achieves closure against the three thugs who broke into his home and violated his family. He manages to get his revenge on all three hoods, whereas Bronson's Kersey never did. Rather, he took it out against whatever street rabble he could in the absence of running across the original perpetrators.

Another take on the countless other movie scripts of this sort especially the half dozen or so Bronson Death Wish movies done decades ago. Always popular perhaps suggesting the male killing revenge instinct is ever present. Opening scenes of our lead Willis arguing w/another parent during a soccer match over his shouting at refs seemed pointless and a bit misdirected given common at kids games. Anyway, another everyday middle class pillar-of-the-community guy gets a bit vigilante revengeful. Predictably, eventually the cops are sympathetic. Not much acting or intelligent dialogue. If you like bloody bullet holes to the head, etc. then feast on this one. .

One of the choices I made during 22 flight from SA. I must admit I watched this after The Snowman so perhaps it was a tough act to follow. Nevertheless the acting and dialogue was weak from the get go, and I like Bruce Willis a lot, just not believing he is master surgeon who wouldn't have popped that guy at the soccer game who so richly deserved it. Perfect wife and daughter so you know bad things are about to happen. His reaction is random wandering and not motivated by the kind of rage his vengeance should have mustered. To top it all off what the F was troubled younger brother Frank even doing in this movie? Why is he broke, to show that so called losers can still be good people capable of having awkward relationships with your wife and daughter? It does attempt to raise important questions about guns, gun violence and the difficulties police have of combating crime but sadly nothing gets answered and it ends just as you would imagine, unbelievably.