Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1994
	Director: Allan A. Goldstein (Raw Deal)
	Actors: Charles Bronson (The Magnificent 7, Death Wish 1-5), Lesley-Anne Down, Michael Parks (Kill Bill, Red State, Tusk)
	Country: USA, CDN
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 28.06.2020, Full HD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Former vigilante Paul Kersey (Bronson) lives in New York hidden under the witness protection program. His relationship with his future wife's ex-husband (Parks), member of the organized crime, will escalate for the worst.
Review: This is the last movie of the series started in 1974 with the original Death Wish and remade in 2018. Bronson was over 70 at the time, the movie didn't get a cinema release (direct-to-DVD it was called) and you can tell when watching it that it was a last attempt at making some money out of the franchise. After punks and drug lords, the bad guys are now from the New York mafia. The story accumulates all the defaults from the previous ones and none of the qualities: Paul Kersey is yet in another serious relationship which comes with a pseudo-daughter, tragedy strikes him out of the blue (he really attracts the villains), he takes revenge using over-complicated schemes (like in Death Wish 4: The Crackdown) and takes far too much time to kill his victims. Add to that the 80's features (already outdated in the 90's) of exaggerated torture / violence, racism and many female topless scenes (from the opening scene to attract the male audience I guess), and you get a bad movie which doesn't know where to go. Cruelly missing is also the soundtrack that was helping the other movies, even the bad ones. The editing is also hectic. Bronson still plays a good Paul Kersey, although slower, and it is nice to see him facing Michael Parks (Red State, Tusk) but they are both underused. The one good decision in the movie was to keep it in New York which gives it the nice street vibe that the West Coast movies of the franchise don't have. Far from enough to save it.
Rating: 3 /10