Death Wish 2 (1982)

I was sorta amazed upon reading other people’s opinions of “Death Wish 2”, for the fact that those who liked the first film tended to hate the sequel. In my opinion, both films are relatively the same so the only way to dislike this one would be because the filmmakers did not really progress towards anything new in terms of the material. Then again, returning director Michael Winner could have been thinking of the old saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Charles Bronson returns as architect Paul Kersey who’s relocated his business to L.A. and seemingly put his life back together after the events of the first film. He has a new girlfriend, his daughter is doing better after her attack in part one, and the architecture business couldn’t be better. Kersey has also seemingly put his vigilante ways behind him though as we all know that won’t last for very long. Since Kersey has to be about the unluckiest guy you could get involved with if you’re female, we soon see his housekeeper and daughter attacked, raped, and killed by a gang of punks. Pissed off and out for revenge, Kersey rents out a seedy motel room to act as vigilante headquarters by night, while constantly dodging his girlfriend by day who wonders, “just where do you go at night Paul?”

As I stated above, this sequel follows the same exact formula as that of the first. Punks attack Bronson’s family, Bronson gets a gun, Bronson proceeds to blow said punks away. It’s as simple as that. I find it funny that many people blast Charles Bronson for not showing enough “emotion” with his character in the film. C’mon for chrissakes, it’s Charles Bronson we’re talking about here! The dude squints, mumbles a few lines, beats up people half his age and blows the heads off of muggers. What more do you need? The rest of the acting is sorta sub-par, even fairly bad at times, though it was cool to see the first films Chief of Police make an appearance, sorta added some familiarity to the movie.

The films pacing moves along at a pretty good clip, as you never have to wait long for Bronson to exact his revenge. It is sorta funny that in a city of over a million people Kersey finds the punks responsible about every fifteen minutes, but then again, as my grandfather would say, “it’s just a picture show”. My main gripe with the movie dealt not with the violence, cheesy acting or dialogue, but in the fact I felt Kersey let the assholes get off a little to easy. Instead of just shooting the bastards and that’s that, you gotta at least torture em’ a bit, you know? Or at least let them know who you are and why you’re gonna blow their heads off. “Death Wish 2” gets some notoriety for the rape scene we see at the beginning, in which apparently over three minutes of that scene had to be cut in order to avoid an “X” rating. Being the sick bastard I am, I’d be curious in viewing an UNCUT print to see what all the fuss is about concerning this scene. Due to the rape scene and violence in the film, many label this one as nothing more than pure tasteless exploitation, and they would be right. What the hell do you expect from a movie called “Death Wish 2”? Quite simply, if you liked the first “Death Wish” or if you just like to see human garbage get blown to hell, then you’ll dig this one.