Scan and Pan
Monday, September 03, 2007
Death Sentence
Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) is a successful businessman who seemingly has it all, including a loving wife (Kelly Preston), a hockey star son (Stuart Lafferty), and a younger son (Jordan Garrett). Returning home from a hockey game one night, Nick and his eldest son stop for gas at a convenience store in a bad part of town. Their timing couldn't be worse, as a gang of men suddenly rob the store and kill Nick's son while he watches helplessly. When Nick learns that the killer Joe Darley (Matt O'Leary) will only get a short prison sentence, he recants his testimony so Joe will be released, allowing him to take personal revenge on his son's killer. The only problem is, the Joe's brother Billy (Garrett Hedlund) is the leader of the gang, and now he wants revenge on his brother's killer. Nick finds himself in a war of attrition that has tragic consequences.
Director James Wan (Saw, Dead Silence) delivers a polished and relentless revenge thriller with good action choreography. As familiar as the premise may be, it still makes for surprisingly gripping viewing. It's made with conviction and there's nothing extraneous to slow it down. Loosely based on a novel by Brian Garfield that was a sequel to Death Wish, the screenplay by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers reworks the characters and plot to make it a separate entity. Wan and Jeffers are aware of all the usual tropes of the genre and use them to maximum effect here. Yes, those tropes strain credulity at times, but done right they can still work, as they do here. It's a brutal film, but it also has a necessary sense of irony about the evolution of the protagonist from family man to grim avenger that's so often missing from similar films. The final scene between Nick and Billy brings that full circle.
Cinematographer John R. Leonetti (The Mask, Dead Silence) gives the film an appropriately dark and gritty look, while production designer Julie Berghoff (Saw, Dead Silence) visually balances safe suburbia and a scary urban environment. The score by Charlie Clouser (Saw, television's Numb3rs) adds to the film's tension.
Bacon plays the role of Nick with conviction, and his performance adds some emotional heft to the story. He makes you feel both his character's desperation and his internal conflicts as he begins his mission of vengeance. Aisha Tyler has a strong turn as a police detective who suspects that Nick has turned vigilante. John Goodman manages to be both menacing and funny while he chews the scenery as a local crime boss. Preston, Lafferty, and Garrett are believable as Nick's family. The antagonists are the usual one dimensional thugs common to the genre, but Hedlund is convincing as Billy and the other actors are adequate.
Death Sentence is a B-movie in the very best sense of the word. It may be exploitation fodder, but it also delivers thrills and entertainment value. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but if it's yours, it's definitely worth seeing.
[3.5 out of 5 stars]
This descendant of Death Wish is quite an effective thriller thanks to solid direction and a good performance from its star.
Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) is a successful businessman who seemingly has it all, including a loving wife (Kelly Preston), a hockey star son (Stuart Lafferty), and a younger son (Jordan Garrett). Returning home from a hockey game one night, Nick and his eldest son stop for gas at a convenience store in a bad part of town. Their timing couldn't be worse, as a gang of men suddenly rob the store and kill Nick's son while he watches helplessly. When Nick learns that the killer Joe Darley (Matt O'Leary) will only get a short prison sentence, he recants his testimony so Joe will be released, allowing him to take personal revenge on his son's killer. The only problem is, the Joe's brother Billy (Garrett Hedlund) is the leader of the gang, and now he wants revenge on his brother's killer. Nick finds himself in a war of attrition that has tragic consequences.
Director James Wan (Saw, Dead Silence) delivers a polished and relentless revenge thriller with good action choreography. As familiar as the premise may be, it still makes for surprisingly gripping viewing. It's made with conviction and there's nothing extraneous to slow it down. Loosely based on a novel by Brian Garfield that was a sequel to Death Wish, the screenplay by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers reworks the characters and plot to make it a separate entity. Wan and Jeffers are aware of all the usual tropes of the genre and use them to maximum effect here. Yes, those tropes strain credulity at times, but done right they can still work, as they do here. It's a brutal film, but it also has a necessary sense of irony about the evolution of the protagonist from family man to grim avenger that's so often missing from similar films. The final scene between Nick and Billy brings that full circle.
Cinematographer John R. Leonetti (The Mask, Dead Silence) gives the film an appropriately dark and gritty look, while production designer Julie Berghoff (Saw, Dead Silence) visually balances safe suburbia and a scary urban environment. The score by Charlie Clouser (Saw, television's Numb3rs) adds to the film's tension.
Bacon plays the role of Nick with conviction, and his performance adds some emotional heft to the story. He makes you feel both his character's desperation and his internal conflicts as he begins his mission of vengeance. Aisha Tyler has a strong turn as a police detective who suspects that Nick has turned vigilante. John Goodman manages to be both menacing and funny while he chews the scenery as a local crime boss. Preston, Lafferty, and Garrett are believable as Nick's family. The antagonists are the usual one dimensional thugs common to the genre, but Hedlund is convincing as Billy and the other actors are adequate.
Death Sentence is a B-movie in the very best sense of the word. It may be exploitation fodder, but it also delivers thrills and entertainment value. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but if it's yours, it's definitely worth seeing.
[3.5 out of 5 stars]
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