Bruce Willis will be getting back to his all-action movie legacy later this year with Death Wish, which will see him at his trigger-happy peak from the look of the trailer. It’s shaping up to be one of a few potential breakout action flicks in 2017 with the likes of Bushwick and Atomic Blonde, and it looks like Bruce is going to be dishing out a lot of retribution during the film.
It taps into the long history of revenge movies, which have taken in everything from Denzel Washington’s Man On Fire in 2004 to Keanu Reeves’ John Wick, which had its sequel earlier this year. There are also shades of other unstoppable force films like Taken and The Equalizer, which have also gone on to inspire sequels (The Equalizer 2 will be out next year), so this could be the start of a new series for Willis.
Death Wish will be making its sway to the big screen in the US on the 22nd November 2017, so it should be out in the UK around the same date. It’s a remake of the Charles Bronson revenge thriller of the same name, which came out in 1974, so if anything, maybe all of the recent clutch of vigilante/retribution movies owe more to it than the other way around.
The trailer gives a pretty good preview of the story behind the film, which follows a similar thread to the original. It centres on Dr. Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis), who’s life is torn apart when his wife and college student daughter are hospitalised in an attack at their home. When he finds a dead-end with the police, he decides to take the matter of justice into his own hands, leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake.
Death Wish trailer:
The killing of criminals gets sensationalised by the media, spurring the surgeon on with his vigilante onslaught. The trailer seems to indicate that, if anything, the early revenge acts are just the tip of the iceberg for Paul and his growing weapons arsenal. It’s shaping up to be an unabashed vigilante fest, with some similarities to the 1974 film, which was criticised for its apparent celebration of taking the law into your own hands.
However, it appears as though there’s a change in the direction of the updated version with Paul going after the guys that attacked his family, instead of just everyday criminals he comes across. There’s also a slightly lighter tone to things with more emphasis on this being a cinematic jaunt, with comic elements making their way into the dialogue.
We doubt there’s going to be much room or plot depth for moral wrangling, or gun crime lensing, so you probably won’t need too much in the way of grey matter with this one. Instead, it’s going to be an all out action movie blast-o-thon with Bruce Willis staring down the barrel.
