Roger Ebert

When he was asked by Johnny Carson how a magazine could quote him saying he really would murder to avenge his family, Charles Bronson looked him in the eye and said, ìBecause the quote is accurate. I really could, and I would.î There was a little silence then because you believed Bronson.

He was publicizing ìDeath Wishî (1974), his film about a man whose wife is killed and daughter raped. He gets a gun and starts posing as bait for muggers, a middle-aged guy with a bag of groceries. Then he shoots them dead. I think he kills about 11 victims (17 in the book) and is nicknamed the New York Vigilante, but the homicide rate drops 50 percent in New York, and so a cop cuts him a deal: Get out of town. As the film ends, heís drawing a bead on a guy in Chicago.

Funny thing. When Bronson made ìDeath Wish IIî (1982), it was set in Los Angeles, even though Brian Garfield, the author of the novel ìDeath Wish,î had written a 1975 sequel, ìDeath Sentence,î set in Chicago. Ah, yes, hereís my copy right here, dedicated to ìJay Robert Nash, John McHugh, Roger Ebert and Bill Granger, Chicago front-pagers all, with thanks.î

He was thanking us because heíd come to Chicago to research the city (in two days, as I recall), and we agreed to meet him at Billy Goatís to feed him the real dope. Billy Goatís (ìno fries, cheepsî) is a hamburger and booze emporium tucked away on the lower level of Michigan Avenue, responsible for the enticing aroma of frying onions that pedestrians enjoy in front of the Wrigley Building. You will recognize the Goatís on page 27, ìa block from Tribune Tower and equidistant from the Sun-Times and Daily News pressrooms.î His hero figures police reporters who hung out there ìmight be the best source of information about the unfamiliar city.î He carries his beer to the back of the bar where ìthere were nine or 10 men and women roughed up by alcohol and cigarettes and the cynicism of insiderís experience.î He got Billy Goatís right.

Bronson went on to make ìDeath Wish IIIî (1985), ìDeath Wish IVî (1987) and ìDeath Wish Vî (1994), by which date he was 73 and didnít need the bag of groceries as bait. They were set variously in Los Angeles and New York, largely filmed in Toronto, and never did get back to Chicago, reportedly because Garfield hated the first movie and its sequels so much he would never sell the rights to ìDeath Sentence.î But now here at last, in 2007, is ìDeath Sentence,î and it is filmed in ... thatís right, South Carolina.†

It doesnít follow the book, either.

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†Kevin Bacon aims his rifle in ìDeath Sentence,î directed by James Wan.

Kevin Bacon steps into the Bronson role, although curiously, even with the real sequel to work with, his name is changed from Paul Benjamin to Nick Hume. In the movieís first press releases, he was John Hume. In the Bronson movies, he was Paul Kersey. There is always a legal reason for these things. I favor John Paul. Probably another bad idea. You may have no interest in the information Iíve shared so far, but Iíll bet you donít read it anywhere else. Probably a reason for that, too.

Everything that follows will be a spoiler of one sort or another, unless you have already guessed that John, I mean Nick, has lost a close family member, obtains a gun that would stop a charging locomotive and goes out for revenge. In the older movies, the killing mostly amounted to the hero shooting people, but ìDeath Sentenceî is directed by the Australian James Wan (ìSaw,î ìDead Silenceî), who has a much more sensational line in violence.

In the Bronson movie, the hero just looked more and more determined until you felt if you tapped his face it would explode. In ìDeath Sentence,î Bacon acts out a lot more, scaring his wife (Kelly Preston) and drawing the attention of a police detective (Aisha Tyler), who you would think, at a crucial point, would ask Nick why he has a blood-soaked bandage wrapped around his hand.†
Probably just smashed a mirror in grief.

Wanís movie is very efficient. Bacon, skilled pro that he is, provides the character the movie needs, just as he has in such radically different films as ìWhere the Truth Lies,î ìThe Woodsmanî and ìMystic River.î John Goodman and Garrett Hedlund are creepy and scary as the gun dealer Bones Darley and his skinhead son, Billy. Bones is the kind of gun dealer who looks like he would like to demonstrate his merchandise on you, and Billy is the kind of kid who is not satisfied with tattoos crawling up his neck but also has one of those goatees that tell you, ìI am either a perverted madman, the leader of a suicidal cult, or terrified you will not notice me.î

There is a courtroom scene of true surprise and suspense, and some other effective moments, but basically this is a movie about a lot of people shooting at each other, and during the parts I liked, the action audience will probably go out to get popcorn, or a tattoo or something.
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Roger Ebert, a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, is a syndicated columnist based at the Chicago Sun-Times.