Death Wish 3 (1985)

“Blow the scum away!” 23 June 2021

After his friend is murdered by a street gang, “Mr Vigilante”, Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson), moves into his friend’s vacant apartment and finds himself embroiled in a war.  Kersey is ruthless in his pursuit of justice.  With the police turning a blind-eye, Kersey is a one man wrecking crew, cleaning the hoodlums off the streets.

If you were to use one movie as an example of the films churned out by Cannon and Golan-Globus in the ‘80s, you’d be hard pressed to find a better example than Death Wish 3.  It’s cheap, exploitative, violent, and a whole lot of fun.  Actually, Death Wish 3 isn’t so much a movie as it is a series of over-the-top set-pieces strung together by the most flimsy of plot threads.  If you think too much about the logic of what you’re watching, it’ll make your head hurt.  Everything from ordering a rocket launcher through the mail to Bronson’s scenes with love interest Kathryn Davis to the completely ineffective police to the Home Alone tactics Kersey uses to battle the gang - none of it makes any real world sense.  But the street gang that Kersey finds himself up against is perhaps the worst offender when it comes to a lack of logic.  They seem to exist only to commit one criminal act after the next with no real payoff.  What’s their end-goal?  And they look absolutely silly, like some sort of rejects from The Warriors. 

Despite all this (or maybe because of all this), Death Wish 3 is a rocking good time.  Watching a 63-year-old Bronson whip out one crazy weapon after another is a real hoot.  And what’s not to enjoy about Bronson setting one trap after the next for the baddies to fall for - like his slow walk to buy ice cream.  I’ve seen this movie a couple of times now and it never fails to entertain.  It easily gets a 7/10 from me.  

7/10