Death Sentence

Cast: Kevin Bacon, Aisha Tyler, Kelly Preston, Stuart Lafferty, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, Matthew O'Leary, Leigh Whannell, Jordan Garrett, Hector Atreyu Ruiz
Language: English
Banner: Baldwin Entertainment Group
Director: James Wan
Producer: Lars Sylvest, Nick Hamson, Nick Morton
Camera: John R. Leonetti
Story: Brian Garfield
Screenplay: Ian Jeffers
Music: Charlie Clouser
Distribution: 20th Century Fox Distribution
Year: 2007

In the latest flashy, pretentious exploitation movie from James Wan ('Saw' and 'Dead Silence'), Kevin Bacon plays Nick Hume, an insurance adjuster who sees his oldest son die at the hands of a machete-wielding young punk during a street gang’s robbery of a gas station.

Nick later kills the perpetrator, setting off a police investigation and a cycle of violence that draws in the punk’s older brother, Billy Darley (Garrett Hedlund), the gang’s leader; his interracially mixed crew; and his father, Bones (John Goodman).

Based on Brian Garfield’s novel — a sequel to the book that spawned the 1974 film 'Death Wish' — Mr. Wan’s film is a middle-class white man’s payback fantasy, leavened with phony references to class difference. Nick goes from pencil pusher to vigilante superhero in record time, racking up killings and personal tragedies en route to a climactic shootout that imitates elements of the 'Taxi Driver' finale, right down to the shaved head, blown-off fingers and gushing neck wound.

Aside from a stunning three-minute tracking shot as the gang pursues Nick through a parking garage, and Mr. Bacon’s hauntingly pale, dark-eyed visage, Mr. Wan’s film is a tedious, pandering time-waster. It keeps telling us that an eye-for-an-eye philosophy makes the world blind, but its heart is attuned to a quote from Bones: “Go with God and a bag full of guns.”

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