Willis is an ER doctor happily married with a daughter who of course is about to go to college. He has some do-nothing brother who is nice though and keeps borrowing money from doc. One day the draw the attention of a valet who records their home address. And one night when doc is working three thugs break into their house and get the wife to open the safe. One the thugs starts messing around with the girl who puts up a fight. Shots are fired and next things we know both end up in the ER. The wife dies, the daughter ends up in a coma.
This in Chicago where apparently you can witness crime all over the place. Little by little the doc starts getting tired of all the crime. The police investigation of course isn't going anywhere. He considers getting a weapon but for some reason doesn't even though he starts trying to interfere when crimes take place to save the victim which of course earns him a beating. When a criminal is taken to the ER and he drops a weapon the doc picks it up instead. Now he sort of teaches himself to shoot one one night goes out looking for criminals. It doesn't take look to find a crime and he shoots the bad guys injuring himself in the process. All this is recorded and put online which earns him plenty of fans as a vigilante.
Next he goes after some neighborhood crime lord which increases his popularity. The clueless police also look for him but have nothing to go on. One night a thug wearing his stolen watch ends up in the ER. Doc also finds the guy's phone and now goes after the killers of his wife. Two of the guys he eliminates quickly, the third will cause him some more trouble while the police are also closing in on the vigilante and at the same time, the daughter regains consciousness.
Death Wish is a light action revenge movie, where things take a while to get going. Both Willis's character and performance are a bit too easy-going to be compelling. The whole police non-investigation angle is also a waste of time. D'Onofrio is great as always but they could have done more with his character. No time is spent on the bad guys so you quickly forget about them altogether. Perhaps if they'd focused more on the doc's career as a vigilante things would have been a bit more thrilling.
This in Chicago where apparently you can witness crime all over the place. Little by little the doc starts getting tired of all the crime. The police investigation of course isn't going anywhere. He considers getting a weapon but for some reason doesn't even though he starts trying to interfere when crimes take place to save the victim which of course earns him a beating. When a criminal is taken to the ER and he drops a weapon the doc picks it up instead. Now he sort of teaches himself to shoot one one night goes out looking for criminals. It doesn't take look to find a crime and he shoots the bad guys injuring himself in the process. All this is recorded and put online which earns him plenty of fans as a vigilante.
Next he goes after some neighborhood crime lord which increases his popularity. The clueless police also look for him but have nothing to go on. One night a thug wearing his stolen watch ends up in the ER. Doc also finds the guy's phone and now goes after the killers of his wife. Two of the guys he eliminates quickly, the third will cause him some more trouble while the police are also closing in on the vigilante and at the same time, the daughter regains consciousness.
Death Wish is a light action revenge movie, where things take a while to get going. Both Willis's character and performance are a bit too easy-going to be compelling. The whole police non-investigation angle is also a waste of time. D'Onofrio is great as always but they could have done more with his character. No time is spent on the bad guys so you quickly forget about them altogether. Perhaps if they'd focused more on the doc's career as a vigilante things would have been a bit more thrilling.