Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

Once again living in L.A., everyone’s favorite architect/vigilante, Paul Kersey, seemingly has life under control. He’s got a great relationship with his girlfriend and her teenage daughter, and things seemingly couldn’t be peachier. However, the daughter is soon dead from a cocaine overdose and Paul hits the streets for revenge against the city’s drug lords, this time backed by a rich tycoon who lost his own daughter to the drug dealers and their cocaine.

This fourth entry to the franchise continues the grade-B style of filmmaking that began with part 3. However as we all know here at the Apocalypse, low budgets do not always equal bad films, you just have to know what you can do with what you got. By now the formula is so down pat it’s really hard to do something new. You know how it goes: Kersey, seemingly retired from the vigilante way of life, has someone close to him die by either rapists, murderers, or in this case, drug dealers. Well, it was actually the drugs and not the dealers, but I guess they are guilty by association. I did enjoy the slight twist of Kersey having a partner of sorts in the old rich dude, though one can never be to trusting, aye Mr. Kersey?

While it is a low budget action flick, “Death Wish 4” knows its limitations. Common sense and reality are thrown out the window; so you never have to wait long for the next gunfight, fist fight, explosion, etc to hit the screen. Bronson is still Bronson, having portrayed the character for so long he’s got the role down handily. For an old dude, he still delivers that tough guy vibe even if he was in his mid-sixties when this was made. The rest of the acting borders on average to fairly bad, but what the hell did you expect? There is an underlying sense of black humor to this one, though I’m not sure how intentional it was, it still was a nice change. Watch for the scene of Kersey delivering a bottle of “wine” to a group of hoodlums, as well as the part where Kersey throws a drug dealer off a roof, only to land on his awaiting limo where his girlfriend wishes he’d “drop dead”. It’s funnier than what it seems, or what my writing skills can describe. Oh, and once again, in true “Death Wish” fashion, Kersey proves he’s just about the deadliest dude to get involved with if you’re a female love interest. All in all, sure it’s sorta cheesy by today’s standards, but c’mon it’s Charles Bronson out to avenge another death for chrissakes, how can you go wrong with that?