Le Justicier de New York

Paul Kersey(Charles Bronson) turns into a one man army when Fraker terrorizes the old people who can't afford to move out, seems these punks need a lesson in manners and Bronson is there to deliver it. Whether it's by using a board to smash anyone who opens the window, putting a bed of nails by the window to prevent someone from setting foot in his house or using big game pistol gunfire to keep giggling thieves at bay, Bronson is determined to give these punks a lesson in etiquette. Back in the 80's no film was half as cool as a movie with an action star and a giant body count. Death Wish 3 was no exception and while I loved the movie as a teenager, it's only fitting that I bought the DVD and love it even more today. Cannon films were awesome back in the day, they made terrible movies, sure, but more often then not it was campy bad movie fun, not unlike this one. Indeed where as you can only watch a good movie once, you can watch this one ten times and never grow tired of it. I could watch this over and over again and I may just pick up another DVD just in case I ware it out. I think that speaks for itself.

* *1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)

I'm having a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to rate this movie. As an actual film, it can't honestly score more than one star out of five. As pure cheese however, you'd have to give this movie a straight up five out of five.

This is probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The catch is, it's so bad that it's actually good. Make sense? The movie is infinitely rewatchable and you can always find something new to laugh at every time you pop this sucker in the player. There is very little to tell you about this movie other than if you haven't seen it, you need to. It's unbelievably violent and Ol' Chuck mows down at least a hundred gang members throughout the film's ninety minutes.

I can write an entire dissertation on this film but I've already seen it done on the Web on quite a few sites so I'm not going to bother. Just to remind you, the movie is so bad and unintentionally funny (watching the film again, it'd make sense if the filmmakers were going for laughs) that if you haven't seen it, you need to.

I'll leave you to ponder this one scene and decide for yourselves whether or not this movie is for you or not: Gang bikers come down the street. Angry civilians wait with a chain stretched across the road. Bikers come and are clotheslined off of their bikes when the chain is yanked upwards. While the bikers are on the floor, the civilians come out and shoot all of them, point blank while they lay writhing on the floor. Men, women and oh yes, children come out and join in the festivities, dancing around the dead bodies of the bikers.

Sigh. Instant classic.

RATING: * out of *****.

SHLOCK-O-CHEESE RATING: ***** out of *****.

Paul Kersey has returned to New York to visit an old war buddy, but finds his mate lying dead in his rundown apartment. Who did a gang of thugs who rule the area beat to death. Kersey gets accused of the murder when the police arrive and he sits in the cell for a while. Although the chief of police realises who he is and decides to let Kersey bring justice to this untamed part of town that they can't seem to control. So Kersey takes up residence in his late friend's apartment, befriends those living there, starts seeing the public defence attorney and goes to work to finally rid this neighbour of their out-of-control mugs.

Talk about over-the-top! The first two films were searing thrillers that realistically exploited its leering material with scathing pot shots or gritty intensity. Instead this addition (which would be director Michael Winner's final outing in the series) goes for an all-out action romp that's excessively cheesy and outrageously delirious. With that on mind. Most of the fun is to be had with this particular item of the franchise.

The seriously dour nature of the earlier films don't really evolve within this one, because Winner favoured more of a tongue-in-cheek style of mayhem that basically parodies (don't know if it was intentional, though) what he done before. Suspenseful thrills are replaced by bigot action looking for nothing more than a large body count. This really does let loose in the film's cracking climax, where no one is safe from the colourfully cartoonish onslaught. What can one say? It's an urban jungle out there for some… but Kersey sees it as a shooting parlour. And his well equipped (carrying a Wilbur Mangum and holding onto a rocket launcher) this time to take out the trash! Sadly though, Charles Bronson is looking terribly downtrodden in the role. He might be sleepwalking it, but what he brings to the table a resourceful character that you can't help but cheer on. Even though the feeble script doesn't emotionally pull you into his compassionate plight like the previous two. The contrived story is pretty much bare bones and very stereotypically (like the multi-race living in the apartment building who finally stand up for their rights as citizens) plotted. The police really do get a touch up in their incompetence of how they do things and their lack of actions. It really does leave a sour taste in your mouth, which I'm sure that's what it was aiming to do.

While, the obligatory romance sub-plot is beyond forced and only there to give Kersey more motivation when needed. An adorable Deborah Raffin plays Bronson's love interested, but with her talent she's wasted in a throwaway part. Ed Lauter trumps in with a quality performance of the cutting, hard-nosed NY detective. Gavan O'Herlihy perfectly cooks up a storm in his nasty role as Fraker the gang leader. With features like his striking hairdo and cold-stare, he managed to reek of brute fear and be sufficient in leading the chaos. Making an appearance as one of the wild punks is a young Alex Winter (who'll be best known for "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure"). The rest of the supporting cast are reasonable. Winner's direction is durably crafted and tautly laid out in its no-bars framework to shove it in your face. Again for such a lesser sequel, Winner makes it look reasonably up to par despite it being a flawed technical production. Although it is being set in NY, it was basically shot in London. Its stays on a few locations and at times they come across as purely sets. An impressive array of camera-work is on the ball by John Stainer. Attached to the music score was Jimmy Page again. Instead of the sickening riffs presented in number 2. It's oozing with a more sweepingly funky and overpoweringly scorching rhythm.

A different breed that might be considerably toned down in its rough exploitative nature, but the gung-ho violence does run freely and you got Bronson walking the walk… of death. For a quick fix, you can't go wrong with ultra-chaotic and downright brainless "Death Wish 3".

The third film of the Death Wish series is probably the worst of them, but it's a guilty pleasure of mine. I do so love the violence when the East New York neighborhood awakes and throws off the rule of punks.

After roaming the streets of New York in the first film and going back to Los Angeles in the second, Charles Bronson as the legendary urban vigilante Paul Kersey returns to New York to visit an old friend who is found murdered. He's questioned, but let go, but the police captain of the beleaguered 75th precinct which in real life does include the East New York area of Brooklyn, Ed Lauter, let's him go with a promise to unofficially do his vigilante thing in that neighborhood. It's getting so that the punks are seriously challenging the citizens in population growth.

Back in the day the East New York area was this middle class neighborhood of homes and churches that so typified Brooklyn. It became a prime example of urban decay. I well recall a local Assemblyman Vito P. Battista who also ran for Mayor of New York several times, declaring that it looked like London after the Blitz. Vito wasn't far wrong. And that is the real East New York you are seeing, lots of blocks of abandoned buildings and empty lots.

As in all Death Wish 3 films Bronson gets himself a woman and it's her death that galvanizes him into action. In this case it's Deborah Raffin who the punks set up in a fiery car crash.

That last half hour of Death Wish 3 is an urban fantasy when the whole neighborhood becomes a battleground as Bronson leads an aroused populace to clean up the neighborhood. Can't describe it, you've got to see it to believe it. More urban slime gets eradicated here than in all the other Death Wish films put together.

You have to see Death Wish 3, it's trashy, it's one of the most politically incorrect films ever made and great fun.

Thus continues Paul Kersey's journey through lands densely populated with criminals...

In this installment, yet another of Paul's friends dies at the hands of thugs. But Paul's not going to stand for it-- he'll take the law into his own hands! Again! Naturally, the dark spectre of crime follows him like a bad penny. In a single afternoon he witnesses more felonies than most of us will see in a lifetime.

Paul's new neighborhood is a checkerboard of cinder-blocked windows, bodegas, flophouses and piles of rubble. His slum is populated by various law-abiding ethnic types being tormented by a motley gang of knuckleheads who aren't willing to let Paul take control of their turf. Some of the ne'er do wells have a funny logo painted on their foreheads. By day and night they rape, pillage, murder and invade the homes of innocents.

Yet -- paradoxically -- the area remains bustling with civilized activity. In the face of danger, its citizens brazenly (or ignorantly) go about their lives. But there is a stiff penalty to pay for such defiance and only the swift arm of Paul Kersey can put it right, all the while inventing new ways to extract teeth from would-be burglars.

Classic formulaic film-making from Cannon films!

6/10