Death Wish 4 (1987) Full Review

Film Scene Investigation

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Transcript

00:12Welcome, it's me Beau, here on the Film Scene Investigation channel.

00:17Thank you for checking out this review.

00:20Today, I'm going to be taking a look at the 1987 action sequel, Death Wish 4, The Crackdown.

00:31So, as you guys know, I'm a big fan of the Death Wish movies, the whole franchise, and obviously

00:39I've been reviewing Death Wish 1, 2, and 3, and so I thought it was about time that I

00:45shared my thoughts and opinions on the fourth entry in the series.

00:50Just before we get into this review, guys, if you haven't already, please, please do

00:56consider subscribing to the channel.

00:58All the support is greatly appreciated.

01:02So, Death Wish 4, The Crackdown, from 1987, was written by the screenwriter Gail Hickman

01:12and was directed by the filmmaker J. Lee Thompson.

01:17During the pre-production phase, Canon Films, the producers, they were experiencing some

01:26financial difficulties and subsequently they would eventually go out of business.

01:33But, yeah, there was a lot riding on Death Wish 4.

01:38I mean, those guys needed it to be a success.

01:42Now, they did have Charles Bronson, once again, returning to the role, playing Paul Kersey.

01:50And, subsequently, it went on to become a modest hit, raking in roughly around about

01:57$7 million on a $5 million budget.

02:01As for the story, it centered on Paul Kersey, now living with his girlfriend, Karen, in Los

02:09Angeles.

02:10Kersey had moved on from the events of Death Wish 3.

02:15He had a new job.

02:18He was an architect once again and seemed to be enjoying his peaceful life.

02:24But, as you can imagine, pretty soon, things started to go wrong.

02:31One night, he and Karen were called to the hospital where Karen's young daughter, Erica,

02:39ended up dying of a drugs overdose.

02:43This girl, Erica, was a straight-A student.

02:46You know, she was an aspiring architect.

02:51So, for her to be, you know, literally dying of a drugs overdose, you know, came as a complete

02:58shock to everyone.

03:00You know, one minute she was there, the next she was gone.

03:04And this, of course, left Paul and his girlfriend, Karen, completely devastated.

03:10In the days and weeks that followed, Kersey ended up getting contacted by a wealthy businessman

03:18called Nathan White.

03:20Now, this was a man whose daughter, similar to Erica's, had died of a drugs overdose.

03:28And, well, he wanted revenge.

03:31Nathan White didn't just want to target the street dealers, but he wanted to actually go

03:37after the drug traffickers.

03:40This guy knew all about Kersey's past, and he knew what he was capable of.

03:46He knew that he could get the job done.

03:48So, Nathan White offered him a large amount of money for Kersey to go and, well, basically

03:55clean up the streets.

03:58Kersey was, yeah, pretty reluctant at first.

04:02I mean, he had no idea who this guy was.

04:04And then suddenly he was being offered large amounts of money to, yeah, take out these

04:10targets.

04:11The whole thing seemed, you know, pretty random.

04:15But given the fact that Kersey knew he could make a real difference, he ended up accepting

04:22Nathan White's offer.

04:25So Kersey was given a list of names to target and got to work immediately collecting information.

04:33Once he had enough information, he then started to decimate the drug dealers one by one, leaving

04:43a trail of carnage behind.

04:47Nobody was safe from this guy.

04:50And as the bodies started to pile up, the drug lords started to panic, wondering who exactly

04:58was behind all of these, all of these killings.

05:02Towards the end of the film, it was revealed that the wealthy businessman, Nathan White,

05:09wasn't who he said he was.

05:12In actuality, he was a drug lord himself called Nathan Ferrari.

05:18He had purposely assumed someone else's identity and then hired Kersey so he could eliminate his

05:27competition, leaving Nathan Ferrari, the main drug lord of Los Angeles.

05:33This whole time, Kersey was, you know, on this mission, you know, taking out all these drug

05:42dealers and scumbags, thinking that he was, you know, making a difference, you know, for

05:49the greater good, helping, you know, drugs not, you know, infect the youth of America.

05:55And then we find out that actually this whole thing was just a rouge by Nathan Ferrari.

06:04Anyways, all of this came out.

06:06And once it did, Kersey found himself to be the target.

06:12Thematically, the franchise once again explored vigilantism as a response to institutional failures.

06:22Just like in the previous films, the authorities were portrayed as being, you know, inadequate,

06:31corrupt, and subsequently, the criminals would roam free, getting away with their crimes and

06:41prompting people like Paul Kersey to fight back.

06:45Of course, this wasn't really anything new.

06:50In fact, it was kind of like a retread from Death Wish 3, because in that movie, Kersey was

06:58backed by this rogue detective who wanted to bring down the crime stats.

07:04In this one, we have a wealthy businessman backing Kersey.

07:10You know, there wasn't really much difference from 3 to 4.

07:14And yeah, I don't know.

07:16I think at this point in the series, things did start to become a little bit tired and convoluted.

07:25And I say that because when we began with the original Death Wish, the series, you know,

07:34that movie was meant to be about a man, an everyday man, who was, you know, forced into vigilantism

07:43due to the issues and, you know, the crime and all the stuff that happened to his family,

07:49by the time we get to Death Wish 4, Kersey is pretty much this deadly assassin for hire.

07:58It just, you know, we started out here and then we've veered off into this other direction.

08:04And yeah, as I said, a little bit convoluted now at this stage.

08:10I also thought that Death Wish 4 lacked the same energy as the original trilogy.

08:20And I actually think that was, a lot of that is down to the absence of director Michael Winner,

08:27who directed the first three movies.

08:30Now, if you didn't know already, the late Michael Winner was a very outlandish filmmaker

08:37who had, well, he brought this very kind of edgy, unapologetic attitude to his material.

08:47Without him involved, I just kind of think that Death Wish 4, it just felt very safe and ineffective.

08:57It felt kind of reserved, you know, middle of the road.

09:03And I'm guessing a lot of that may have come down to the studio, Canon Films,

09:12wanting to, you know, have this film appeal to a wider audience.

09:18As I mentioned earlier, the studio were having financial trouble

09:24and they needed the movie to be a success.

09:28And, you know, for those guys, they just wanted as many people as possible to see it.

09:35You know, a good example of this movie's reserved approach

09:41would be the opening title sequence,

09:44where we saw a woman harassed before Kersey came and saved the day.

09:50You had this woman in a car park alone, three men came out of nowhere,

09:56masked and, yeah, basically took her from a car,

10:00started to rip her clothes off and attempt to assault her right before Kersey swooped in.

10:08Now, this moment was the only, you know, sexual violence that we saw in the entire film,

10:14which is a far cry from all of the brutal violence that we saw in the first three movies.

10:22Now, I could be wrong here,

10:24but if Michael Winner was still in the director's chair,

10:30I kind of think that this opening sequence would have featured a lot more nudity.

10:38And, yeah, it just would have felt a lot more grittier and darker than it did.

10:45I can't quite describe it, but it was like everything was kind of toned down.

10:51Like, I don't know, maybe the studio gave some notes and they were like,

10:56hey, you know, no nudity, no shots of any breasts or anything like that,

11:01nothing like that.

11:02You know, just do the close-ups of the faces and whatever.

11:06And so, yeah, I mean, it wasn't a bad scene,

11:09but for, you know, a Death Wish movie, it was on the safe side.

11:17You know, personally for me, I didn't have an issue with the filmmakers

11:21veering away from the sexual violence that the franchise had been so notorious for.

11:29All that stuff, yeah, never really been a fan.

11:34But once you take that away, with Death Wish 4,

11:39what you're left with is basically some decent action set pieces,

11:45an okay story, and a pretty uninspiring cast.

11:52You know, I want to make this clear, like, I'm not bashing this film.

11:55You know, I don't hate this film.

11:59But, yeah, I mean, without Michael Winner, there was just something lacking.

12:04As I said, the energy, the spirit, I don't know what it was,

12:07but Death Wish 4 was just kind of paint by numbers.

12:11And, you know, as a standalone film, it's not a bad movie.

12:16It really isn't.

12:16But it just failed to reach the heights of that original trilogy.

12:23While, of course, this does sound like I'm being really negative,

12:27I will say that I did enjoy some of the action sequences.

12:31For example, when Kersey went into the drug factory and started shooting everyone.

12:38Explosions were going off.

12:40People were, you know, bodies were flying everywhere, bullets.

12:43And, yeah, you just had Kersey, you know, in full kill mode.

12:48And, yeah, I mean, that was some, you know, classic Death Wish material.

12:54I also liked the oil field scene where we had the two drug lords meeting

13:01and Paul Kersey ambushing everyone.

13:04A big shootout commenced, bullets were flying.

13:08These drug lords were trying to escape, but had no chance of survival.

13:16You know, say what you will about Charles Bronson and his age in this film.

13:22But when it comes to moments like that, when he's got his rifle and he's just,

13:28you know, he means business.

13:30Yeah, he was still very much an intimidating figure on screen.

13:37It was also apparent that this movie had a very strong anti-drugs message.

13:44And this was all, of course, represented with the young girl, Erica,

13:49who ended up dying of a drugs overdose.

13:52Now, at the time, during the mid-80s, the Reagan era,

13:58there was this huge campaign, war on drugs, basically.

14:03And what we were seeing was this filtering through into the mainstream media.

14:08I don't have an issue with that.

14:10You know, I mean, kids should definitely stay away from drugs.

14:13So in that sense, you know, it wasn't glorifying it.

14:17And I think that's definitely a positive.

14:19But it was kind of interesting because it was kind of like a, you know,

14:23a public service announcement.

14:26But, you know, Death Wish was used as the way to deliver that message.

14:32You know, a violent PSA to scare kids away from drugs.

14:37You know, it's kind of amusing.

14:39As for the performances, I thought once again, Bronson did a pretty good job playing Paul Kersey

14:47for the fourth time, delivering a stoic and understated performance.

14:53Yes, Bronson was 65 at the time.

14:58And yeah, I mean, he wasn't as fast as he once was.

15:02You know, age catches up to all of us at some stage.

15:06But I did think the filmmakers did a pretty good job in hiding Bronson's weaknesses.

15:14One thing that did really stick out to me, though, this time was the lack of memorable dialogue from Bronson.

15:24You know, I think back to Death Wish 1, 2, and 3.

15:28And there were just so many awesome one-liners, you know, that he would say.

15:34And with Death Wish 4, honestly, even now, I can't really think of anything that he says, really.

15:43You know, there was nothing that stuck out to me.

15:48And when you don't have those memorable quotes, yeah, it definitely is just, yeah, it just lacks.

15:56For the most part, I thought Bronson did the best he could with the material that he was given.

16:03It should be noted that the film script went through several changes before filming began,

16:11and then subsequently was changed again.

16:14So a lot of changes, a lot of moving parts.

16:19And yeah, Bronson did the best with what he had.

16:24As for actor John P. Ryan, he played the villain, Nathan Ferrari, the man that double-crossed Kersey.

16:33Overall, I thought Ryan did a pretty good job with his delivery and kooky persona.

16:41Now, I will say that towards the end of the movie, once we had found out that he was, you

16:49know, a drug lord himself,

16:52his character did start to become a little cartoonish.

16:58But, you know, overall, he was a pretty entertaining villain for the most part.

17:05As for actress Kay Lenz, she played the love interest of Paul Kersey, the woman Karen,

17:13whose daughter ended up dying of an overdose.

17:18Now, I thought that Lenz was okay in the role.

17:23She wasn't bad or delivered a bad performance.

17:26But just overall, I thought her character was kind of shoehorned into the story.

17:35And, you know, it wasn't necessary.

17:38It was like the filmmakers wanted to kind of give her character some significance.

17:45And so they featured her with her own subplot.

17:49But it just didn't work.

17:53She was a reporter.

17:55And once her daughter, Erica, died, she wanted to kind of go undercover and investigate who was responsible.

18:03And, you know, while all of that is fine and good, ultimately, this is a sequel to Death Wish.

18:12And you just have to understand your audience.

18:16And ultimately, the audience came to see Bronson, you know, killing people, not some subplot involving, you know, a grieving

18:26mother.

18:27As I said, it just didn't work.

18:30And, yeah, for me personally, I would have just removed pretty much all of that.

18:37I mean, to what's with you, I don't think even Kersey in this movie, I mean, did he really need

18:41a love interest?

18:43Not really, you know.

18:44So, it is what it is.

18:47But I will say this.

18:48At the end of the movie, Karen ended up getting killed by Nathan Ferrari.

18:54He took her hostage and ended up shooting her.

18:57And I will say, I thought that was a pretty bold move by the filmmakers.

19:03Now, up until that point, I assumed that Karen would end up surviving.

19:09You know, Kersey would save the day and they would walk off into the sunset.

19:16We almost got that.

19:18I mean, we still kind of got, you know, Kersey walking off.

19:22But, yes, they did kill Karen, his love interest.

19:27And I guess for a movie that was kind of middle of the road, you know, not bad, but nothing

19:32special.

19:33That was one of the few kind of moments in the movie that actually surprised me.

19:38You know, well, it actually killed her off.

19:41Okay.

19:41At least her death, in some ways, added some levity to all of the killing that we'd seen in the

19:49movie.

19:50And, yeah, well done, you know, to the filmmakers for subverting my expectations.

19:57There was also a very small role from actor Danny Trejo, who was one of the henchmen that got killed

20:06by Kersey inside a restaurant.

20:10It was a small role.

20:12So, you know, nothing really to really talk about here.

20:17Trejo just kind of showed up and then he died.

20:22But it is a shame, in a way, that Trejo wasn't more established, you know, during that time and wasn't

20:30given a bigger role.

20:31Because, you know, personally, Bronson versus Trejo, that sounds good.

20:37You know, I would have liked to have seen, you know, Danny Trejo go up against, you know, a big

20:42gun battle with Bronson.

20:44That would have been pretty cool to see.

20:46So, shame.

20:48Yeah, it's cool that they, you know, they were in a film together.

20:52But, yeah, it's kind of a missed opportunity.

20:56So, dislikes for Death Wish 4 from 1987.

21:03My biggest dislike for the film would have to be the film's score.

21:08Death Wish 4, which basically consisted of several tracks taken from other movie scores.

21:16Now, as I've mentioned before, and I'm probably going to mention this one more time before this review's over.

21:21But Canon Films, the guys that, you know, produced Death Wish 4, they were having a lot of money issues.

21:30They were trying to tighten the budgets.

21:32And they were in no position to pay a composer to come up with, you know, some original new material.

21:41To think, just a few years earlier, they were hiring the legendary Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin to come and,

21:49you know, create a soundtrack.

21:50Which ended up being, you know, fantastic.

21:54A few years later, money issues, you know, appear and suddenly, you know, they had to just use what they

22:01had at their disposal.

22:03The score itself, it was just kind of, you know, in a way it was like the film.

22:09Paint by Numbers, kind of lacklust style.

22:13There was nothing really stuck out to me or, you know, a theme that I was like, okay, that's awesome.

22:18Or it was just there, you know.

22:21It was almost like a music you'd hear like on a TV movie, something like that.

22:28Also, you know, just with the songs in general, a lot of them were very kind of saxophone heavy.

22:34And, yeah, saxophone, Death Wish, it just doesn't really mix too much for me.

22:44I didn't, I just wasn't much of a fan.

22:48And it's a shame, you know, it's a shame that it turned out the way it was.

22:54Because if Canon had, you know, given money to an actual composer to actually come up with some original material,

23:05then it definitely would have improved the film, 100%.

23:08And so, ratings for Death Wish 4 from 1987.

23:16I'm going to be rating this movie a 4 out of 10.

23:20Death Wish 4, for me, is the weakest in the series.

23:26I just, I just felt it was very bland.

23:30And, I mean, there were some minor redeeming qualities,

23:35but it just could not live up to the original trilogy.

23:40It's like the first two movies have a lot of substance.

23:44And then, with the third movie, yeah, okay, it takes a step backwards.

23:52But, with that, it's still wildly entertaining.

23:55And, you have to kind of love the absurdity of it all.

23:59Whereas, with Death Wish 4, you don't really have that.

24:02It really is just a kind of a generic action movie.

24:07Once you've seen it, okay, whatever.

24:11Now, don't get me wrong, I think the story did have a lot of potential.

24:17But, just in the way it was executed,

24:20and just the limitations that were, you know, held over this production,

24:26of course, it negatively affected it.

24:30I guess one positive I can say is that the movie had a pretty decent pace.

24:36I think it clocked in at around about 98 or 99 minutes.

24:41So, it doesn't hang about, you know, it doesn't linger on.

24:46It has a quick pace.

24:47So, for the most part, even though it's not a fantastic movie,

24:53at least, you know, it doesn't outstay its welcome.

24:56If you've seen Death Wish 4,

24:59then please let me know your thoughts and memories in the comment section below.

25:03So, for all those out there who haven't seen this one yet,

25:09unless you're a fan of the Death Wish franchise,

25:12and you've seen, you know, the first three movies,

25:16I'd probably say give this a miss.

25:18I mean, as a standalone movie,

25:21it's kind of a generic action film.

25:24Of course, if you're a fan of Bronson,

25:27absolutely, you should check this one out.

25:29But, yeah, like I said,

25:32there wasn't really that much to really, you know, praise.

25:37You know, it was just kind of there.

25:41And, yeah, a minor recommendation at best.

25:45And, well, that is all from me today, guys.

25:48I do hope you've enjoyed this review of Death Wish 4 from 1987.

25:53I'll be back next week with another cult movie review.

25:58If you haven't already, guys, please do consider subscribing.

26:01I really appreciate it.

26:02And, of course, take care.

26:26I'll be back next week with another cult.

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