Death Wish 2 (1982)

Director: Michael Winner

Starring: Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Vincent Gardenia

More info: IMDb

Tagline: First His Wife. Now His Daughter. It's Time To Even The Score!

Plot: Architect Paul Kersey once again becomes a vigilante when he tries to find the five street punks who murdered his daughter and housekeeper, this time on the dark streets of Los Angeles.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yep.

Bronson = Badass! He doesn't say much...he doesn't have to.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST TWO DEATH WISH FILMS.


Bronson is the MAN so don't try and resist that fact. He's back, albeit 8 years later, and he's got a new score to settle. In the first picture he never gets true revenge as he never finds any of the assholes that fucked up his wife and daughter. His revenge was gunning down criminal punks who deserved it. This time he gets true revenge.


It's nice that Gardenia is back and his character isn't just used as a simple throwback; he actually has a purpose. I REALLY like how much time and effort was spent developing Bronson's romance with Ireland only to have her leave him in the end. THAT was very nice and unexpected. What I didn't appreciate was Jimmy Page's score. It's pretty good during the hunting bits but when there's no action or during the Ireland scenes it's downright silly and embarrassing. There's a lot of cartoonish shit going on with the score and it only gets worse with the next one.


OK, so does Bronson have an easy time hunting down these punks and wasting them? Does it seem a little too easy how he's able to get the last guy in the hospital? Yes and yes but if you're watching this flick you shouldn't care - it's Bronson for fuck's sake and he's just that good. The next film in the series goes into outrageous territory but it doesn't matter one bit because Bronson is a fully-formed killing mother fucker and it's only a movie.