Review – Death Wish 4

In my review of Death Wish 3, I noted that the action had taken on the flavor of Don Pendleton’s Executioner series. Here the trend continues. Indeed, it goes too far in that direction. Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) tries to settle down with a new woman and her daughter, but all that does is give the criminals someone new to kill (thus setting him off once again). But unlike the last couple of sequels, this effort gets bogged down in petty intrigue as our hero tries to sneak his way into the drug gangs responsible for his once-potential-stepdaughter’s death. And rather than do the dirty work himself, he gets a lot of mileage out of faking them into killing each other. Overall this isn’t a terrible movie. It isn’t even the worst in this series. But it lacks the simple, single-minded vigilante violence that supplies the real entertainment value in these pictures. Mildly amusing