Parents' Guide to Death Wish

Director Eli Roth's remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson movie (both based on Brian Garfields' novel) is not only awful, it's also incredibly thoughtless, with a brutish, simpleminded argument. The Bronson version was troublesome, but it worked, and it was the '70s. Now we're in a vastly different time, and the entire idea is insensitive and foolish. This Death Wish does offer a few arguments against vigilante violence, but for the most part, it wants us to root for its "hero" and hope he'll get away with his crimes. Perhaps worse, Roth's career full of excessive violence and torture -- including another exploitation remake, The Green Inferno -- indicates that he was probably more interested in blood splatters than in actual ideas.

The screenplay starts awkwardly, showing just how cozily perfect life is at the Kersey home, which supposedly heightens the "shock" when things go south. And it doesn't quite make sense that Kersey is now a surgeon rather than an architect (as in the original); a man sworn to protect life shouldn't resort to killing so quickly. In some scenes, he's as efficient as a streetwise action hero, while in others, he's ridiculously clumsy and careless. Willis can't help but play him with a sheepish look much of the time, and Beau Knapp is flat-out bad as a sneering, cunning killer. It's an unwelcome movie no matter what, but the argument between "taking the law into your own hands" and "letting the ineffectual police do nothing" is an insult in a time when conversation has moved on to more pressing topics.