Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey takes on the members of a vicious Los Angeles drug cartel to stop the flow of drugs after his girlfriend's daughter dies from an overdose. Death Wish 4 is fun, action packed and once again Charles Bronson steals the show. Now to be honest i still loved Part 3 a bit more than this but there were still some amazing action scenes like the opening dream sequence plus there's an awesome plot twist in the movie regarding a character. Overall Death Wish IV is an 80's underrated classic!!!

I'm starting to see a bit of a pattern going on with some of these films, namely that poor Paul Kersey really doesn't seem to get a break. It seems like every five years or so he manages to settle down and suddenly he finds his world once again torn apart. Then again, he's been doing this vigilante thing for quite a while now, so he has probably become quite skilled at it. Then again, he does seem to be pretty immune to bullets, or rather he happens to be a crack shot whereas everybody he comes across doesn't know the barrel of a gun from its muzzle. Then again, they are street crims (though you'd be forgiven if you thought they were storm troopers without their armour). This time his girlfriend's daughter gets caught up with some rather bad company, and takes a dose of cocaine which ends up killing her. Not surprisingly Kersey (who also goes by the name John Kimble, so I guess that happens to be his alias) decides to get back at the dealer that sold, or rather gave, her this bad batch. Well, that would be the end but he is then approached by somebody else who claims that his daughter was also killed by a bad batch and that he wants Kersey to take out all of the drug dealers in Los Angeles. So, he then sets about to put the two cartels at each other's throats, though it turns out that they aren't as stupid as it appears. All the while we have the police who are attempting to get to the bottom of this, though there is also this pressure just to let the two gangs kill each other. Well, not quite because there are a couple of officers that sort of know what is going on. However, the film doesn't pan out the way that we expected because it turns out to have a rather interesting twist at the end. Well, not quite because it is probably just another well worn trope, but it is a twist nonetheless, and these always to add a bit of extra spice to the film. I did actually find this film to be a little better than the previous one, but not by much. All in all it is just another one of those action films, and Kersey has become more and more unrealistic as time goes on. Well, he was pretty unrealistic in the previous film, but once again he has a huge stock pile of weaponry hidden away. I guess the only difference between Kersey and Batman is that Kersey doesn't dress up when he goes out and does his business, and also Batman, because he wears a mask and a cape, seems to get away with being a vigilante whereas Kersey seems to be forever dodging the cops.

Once again, Charles Bronson plays architect-turned-vigilante Paul Kersey in this fourth film in the 'Death Wish' franchise. Often cited as the weakest entry in the series, 'Death Wish 4' suffers from leaden dialogue (especially when Kersey is consoling his grief-stricken girlfriend) and limited character progression. On the plus side though, the film has a fresh and original plot with a nod towards 'Yojimbo' as Kersey is hired play off rival drug cartels against one another, leading each to believing that the other is trying to sabotage their business. Kersey has some pretty nifty weapons this time too, including an incendiary device in a wine bottle, and with the experienced J. Lee Thompson at the helm, it is a slick-looking production. The opening scene is especially remarkable with clever use of fish-eye lensing and deliberately edited cutaways (in which hoodlums appear and disappear) drumming up incredible tension. There is also well edited sequence later on in which Kersey's gun-fighting gets redirected to a local ice rink, and the open ending is pitch perfect. The plot is arguably a bit too intricate for its own good with a twist in the final third that does not necessarily add a lot to the film, though it does tie in well with the idea of Kersey being used as a pawn to dirty work that could not otherwise be done (an angle sort of explored in 'Death Wish 3' with Ed Lauter's corrupt cop). This might well be a lot different to the thought-provoking original 1974 movie, but as far as sequels go, 'Death Wish 4' is very decent of its type.

Paul Kersey (Bronson) is back to wipe out an entire drug cartel, to be honest, two. He's got a new girlfriend with a daughter but once the daughter overdosed it's time to hunt. Better than part 3 but this time it do moves slowly and clocking in over 90 minutes it's a bit to long. Storywise it's only the name Kersey that makes references toward the 1974 original, this is more a typical Cannon (the distributors) action movie then a revenge flick. On part of the effects, this maybe is the best of the franchise. And for the freaks, Danny Trejo is to spot in the Italian restaurant.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2,5/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5