I liked it, the wife liked it. It was very Willis! I don't think anyone else could have pulled it off.

quote:

Originally posted by tgtshuter:
I'll be passing on this.

I enjoyed the 1st one - from the 70's - then they ran the well dry with what, 4 more after that?

Bruce Willis ain't got nothing on Charles Bronson.

Exactly.

This makes me want to see it even more:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/...tion-0304-story.html

The 'Death Wish' remake lands with a thud in the 'Chi-ploitation' genre

Christopher Borrelli
Chicago Tribune
March 2, 2018

On my way to the screening of the remake of “Death Wish” my phone bleeped and a notification told me that Walmart had decided not to sell firearms to anyone under the age of 21. Earlier that day, my phone had bleeped and a small window told me that Dick’s Sporting Goods, another leading retailer of guns in the nation, would no longer sell firearms to anyone under 21 — plus, it would no longer sell assault-style rifles at all. Earlier in the week, my phone bleeped, and bleeped again, and again, as motel chains, airlines and insurance companies severed relations with the National Rifle Association.

The new “Death Wish,” which was made by MGM (the 1974 original was released by Paramount), tells the story of how a man from Evanston goes into a gun store and buys an arsenal to avenge the death of his wife and the shooting of his daughter in their beautiful Colonial-style home. This man, a surgeon played Bruce Willis, asks if there will be a lengthy background check, and a young woman behind the counter — spilling out of her tank top, leering at the 62-year-old actor as if it hasn’t been 33 years since “Moonlighting” debuted — explains it takes no time and frankly, wink, everyone passes, of course.

Is this why they call it a revenge fantasy?

Or is that reality?

Later, as the bullets fly and the American carnage climbs, there is only one man brave enough to run toward the danger, into the building with the active shooter, only one man who can shoot first and ask questions later (or at all) — there is only one man sharp enough to clean up the volcanic Mordor of Chicago 2018. But is it weird that this person is being played by Bruce Willis? How many assumed I was referring to Donald Trump?

To be honest, I don’t know anymore.

Is it possible to soundtrack an entire movie with cultural dog whistles? To gaslight a city? To say life in 2018 is surreal is stale and obvious. But this new “Death Wish,” which gets on at State and Lake and transfers at Stale and Obvious, is something special: It feels like a summation of how the world regards Chicago, how others come to Chicago and, in keeping with a century of pop culture about Chicago as a backwater metropolis ruled by Al Capone and Molly Ringwald, are OK with making Chicago a fixer-upper.

It’s Chicago the Abstraction: The Movie.

Decoding the racial schematics alone would require a lifetime. But watching it in Chicago is to sense an entire culture talking about you behind your back. Willis and Co. eat deep dish, attend soccer matches on the North Shore, get news reports of Lollapalooza ripping up Grant Park (“Again”). They read Milton Friedman! The police say — out loud, without irony, in situations where other humans can hear them — “We’re not arresting a surgeon without ironclad proof!” Willis takes the Red Line into the poorest neighborhoods, mixes it up with the locals, of all races and ethnicities, the kind who valet his BMW — I’m not being facetious — then returns to Evanston, exhilarated.

Sure, it’s a dumb movie, but those come every week — “You’re the crew that stole all the stuff in my house,” Willis shouts at his attackers, “and you killed my wife!” Here is a staggering bit of Chi-ploitation without regard for a city where real people live — which is perhaps why the film feels of a piece with the White House’s renderings of Chicago. It opens, no kidding, with a Chicago police officer being shot and murdered in the Loop. It has a Greek chorus of talk radio personalities providing glib lip service to “the debate” about Chicago. It is centered on revenge shootings, but unlike, say, Showtime’s “The Chi,” which also goes there, it tells us revenge is cathartic and necessary — even fun.

Of course, culture gets oversimplified.

“The Chi” can be just as frustratingly easy, moving personalities and races and professions around a cultural chessboard, as if simply offering different perspectives and backgrounds is the same thing as cultural nuance itself. But the vision of Chicago in “Death Wish” is much stupider, a place without very much hope, and basically three parts: bombed-out sections, North Shore colonials and the section of Chicago that abuts Trump Tower, gleaming and dark and unknowable. It is the vision of Chicago that Trump has hammered for years — which is actually the New York of old exploitation flicks such as, well, the old “Death Wish” with Charles Bronson. Willis hears a black voice and immediately assumes a crime is being committed (in this case, it is); Latinos leer at him; homeless people plaster themselves to the side of his BMW, begging for entitlements. It is Trump’s Chicago, minus gangs wearing suede fringe vests without T-shirts underneath.

Does it really matter?

Yes. Playing defense is what Chicago does — rocking forward on its heels, fists up, even as the rest of the nation goes about its business, uninterested. It’s Chicago’s fate and pathology. But as silly as it is for a city to keep reminding itself of its “world class” status, “Death Wish” plays like a reminder of why that affirmation matters. It is the kind of positive affirmation the president himself seems to crave. Never mind that in this new “Death Wish,” people dream of leaving Chicago and escaping to New York — things change, the fate of cities change. In the original Bronson looked like a driving instructor whose house was egged. In this one, Willis speaks so slowly and with so little emotion — for family, police, valets, criminals, etc. — he is more of an American Psycho than a savior.

He’s not all of us, he’s just him.

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com

Man, that review makes me want to pay full price and go see it again!

I prefer to wait to see movies at home - I really wanna see this one so making the trek with the wife to the theater

Leave it to a film critic to make their review a bit piece on Trump.

Goodnight Irene! I could only suffer through to read the first sentence or the first half of the first sentence of each paragraph of the "review". In the third grade I was pencilling out book reports on Big Chief tablets about Henry Huggins and Ramona the Pest that were more objective.

We saw it today and loved it.

I think I need to go see it soon.

Saw it with wife last night. Enjoyed it, it is a fantasy story with a hard edge. Classic Bruce so fun. A few thing we talked about - situational awareness (Mom & daughter), training, and carry/access all the time. It will reinforce and remind you of what you already know and should be doing. Also...very loose with the laws in the Chicago socialist Mecca.

Going to see it tonight with the Mrs. We've been waiting way too damn long.

We saw it yesterday. Enjoyed it, but I think there should have been a few more righteous retributions before the final scene. He was just getting started and quit too soon.

Intersting irony...

Years ago my wife conned me into going to “Twighlight” when it first came out by telling me it was a vampire movie and that there would be boobs.

Before it started, something struck me as odd- I got a sense that there were a LOT of lonely cats at home as the audience seemed to be mostly middle-aged women who appeared to not likely have a spouse.

As I waited for the lights to dim yesterday, I noticed that the audience was primarily middle-aged white guys carrying a few extra pounds... I guess I was a member of the target audience

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
As I waited for the lights to dim yesterday, I noticed that the audience was primarily middle-aged white guys carrying a few extra pounds... I guess I was a member of the target audience

When I go, I'll be an older version....

flashguy

Just saw it. Very fun. Perhaps not great, but fun.

I saw it last night. I actually liked better than the original.

Wifey and I enjoyed it.

I've gone all this time watching Willis shoot people, and I never knew he was a lefty.

Saw it Saturday. Loved it! Best part for me was the garage interrogation scene. Looked like it might hurt!

Three out of five stars...all the best parts were in the trailer.

It has its moments, and it is worth a look in your favorite format. Yes, it is fantasy. Yes, it plays fast and loose with gun laws in Chicago.

The police are portrayed as complete tools, as they were in the original.

Bruce Willis has become quite good at under-playing his roles. His reserve makes a nice counter-point to the director's zest for absurdity.

Roth started out in the genre of horror films, and he brings all its cheap tricks to DW. For instance, the bad guys are ghouls, devoid of any human qualities. The editing likes to spring the jump from nowhere on you.

On another note, Roth has a cynical sense of humor. The gun bunny Bethany and the accompanying videos of how to be a gun-guy insider are a parody of "Gun Culture 2.0". I hope you can take a joke. It is okay to laugh at ourselves now and then.

Go see it. Make the snowflakes melt.

My wife and I just returned from a 10:30 showing.
Thought it was entertaining, all it needed to be.