Death Wish 5: The Face of Fear (1993)

Paul Kersey, architect and vigilante extraordinaire, has seemingly (once again) settled down and quit his mugger-shooting ways. He’s happily engaged (once again) to a broad half his age named Olivia, and is preparing to become a stepfather (once again) to Olivia’s daughter. Olivia runs a successful modeling/fashion agency that has come under pressure from her ex-husband, a racketeering mobster and overall asshole named Tommy O’Shea. As Kersey’s luck would have it, things quickly go sour as Olivia decides to stand up to her ex and his gang, and soon it’s time, yes, you guessed it, for Kersey to “once again” return to his vigilante ways, declaring war on organized crime.

Even though the franchise became increasingly stale and repetitive with each new entry, I always found something to enjoy about each one, even though they are arguably not the greatest films around. This one differs from the third and fourth films as it’s not so much a big time shoot em’ up flick with tons of explosions and the like. Sure there’s plenty of action, but the film takes it’s time in setting things up. Bronson is well into his seventies at this point and he just might be the only dude who can look believable at that age in beating up people who could very well be his grandchildren. Hell, Bronson could have done this stuff even if he lived to be a hundred, just slap a leather jacket on him and put a gun in his hand, and I bet the man could still kick some ass.

I mentioned the pacing was a tad slow but this actually works to better the film somewhat, as you get to know the bad guys and boy are they a bunch of bastards, even if they are sorta cartoony. You’ll cheer when Bronson dishes it out trust me. Michael Parks especially, as mobster Tommy O’Shea, portrays an extremely nasty bad guy and he reminded me of a poor man’s Jack Nicholson in some spots though not “poor” as in bad. Kersey takes a subtler approach in ass kicking with this film, as he utilizes poison and explosive soccer balls (!) to exact his revenge, though the trusty old handgun still comes into play. It takes some time to get going, but the action kicks in fairly decent during the second half of the movie, so just stick with it.

Fans of the “Death Wish” films typically enjoy each entry and I’m no different. If you liked the other “Death Wish” flicks, then chances are you’ll like this one. There’s just something about these flicks that we dig here at Apocalypse Headquarters, probably cus’ everybody at one point has dreamed about doing what Paul Kersey can do and then get away with it. I also almost shed a tear when Bronson walks into the outside light at the end of the movie, as I watched this flick fairly recently after Bronson’s death...sorta surreal in a sense. Rest in Piece Mr. Bronson.