Death Wish II aka Why Did it take me 30 Years to Meet Paul Kersey

Despite being an action movie buff, I just recently watched the first two Death Wish films. Two films, which most worshipers of the action/revenge genre would refer to as gospel, I had let go by for over 30 years. Why, I'm not quite sure. Possibly because my interest in action films didn't really go much beyond martial arts during my impressionable years. Guns and car chases were never really "a thing" for me until the latter part of my life. Sure, I always loved Seagal and JCVD, but those dicks were always so skilled with the hands and feet, firearms and explosions always looked like a suckers way out. Due to my obsession with Italian and 70's cinema over the last few years, I have actually become entranced with the shoot-em-ups and big explosions, and with those types of films came a fondness for Charles Bronson. Even though I put off watching his most famous works for a couple of years of being a fan of the Cinema God of Vengeance, I'm kind of glad I did because I was once again inspired to write for this piece-of-shit blog that hasn't been updated in many moons.

So I give a big thanks to Chuck for the inspiration.

As if 20 minutes ago I just finished watching Death Wish II, a flick that I'm sure many of my cohorts in the trash cinema world have not only watched repeatedly, but have probably written about on there own blogs. Besides that, I'm the freak idiot who never took the time to watch it. So even if you haven't masturbated to it, if you are reading this you have probably seen it, so I don't really think I have to summarize it.

If you haven't, the show goes something like this: Paul lives in LA after escaping his past bad luck, only to fall upon NEW bad luck. New bad luck being same as the old bad luck(violent muggers). New bad luck rapes and murders Paul's loved ones, so he goes out on a revenge spree, "nuff said. The story was told in the first movie, and repeats in this one. Since 5 other Death Wish movies were made, I'm sure the story was repeated another 3 times.

All I have to say is Paul Kersey is an extremely unlucky MFer. In the first film, his wife gets murdered and his daughter raped into catatonia. That is seriously too much for one man to take. Any of us would understand taking the law into his own hands, any Red-Blooded American Man would want to, especially during the 70's when Real Men ruled the silver screen. In the next film, his life's misfortune repeats in almost the exact same fashion, yet he still remains cool. In fact, 5 movies in and he's still going.

Fuck that shit! Any person stationed in reality would really start questioning the existence of a Higher Power. If not that, wondering what evil they had done in a previous life to deserve so much sorrow. That's some Hitler-level shit if you ask me. Paul Kersey keeps on killing punks. Joe Schmoe Normalguy would probably go on to commit suicide or join some kind of religious order, possibly both. This reason alone makes me question whether I want to see 3,4, and 5. It's seems like it would not only be unrealistic, but extremely played out at that point. I probably will though, not because I'm a sucker for punishment and really love Bronson. But because of the fact that the first two Death Wish films were utterly amazing and I'm sure I'll find similar qualities in the final three.