#164: Death Wish V: The Face of Death

Release Date: January 14th, 1994

Format: DVD

Written by: Allan A. Goldstein

Directed by: Allan A. Goldstein

1.5 Stars

Well, here’s my final scorecard for the Death Wish films:

• The original Death Wish is a gritty, problematic, but effective and well-made exploitation movie: 3 stars

• Death Wish II is a lazy, ugly movie. I didn’t like it: 1 star

• Death Wish 3 is a tremendous ‘so bad it’s good’ entry into the series: 3 stars

• Death Wish 4 is a well-made, ridiculous, entertaining exploitation movie: 3 stars

Which brings me to Death Wish V: The Face of Death, which, regretfully, ends the series on a whimper. Writer/director Allan A. Goldstein is given the keys to the franchise and he’s in over his head here. The movie looks cheap, and unlike the previous four entries in the series (even the awful Death Wish II), it’s kind of a bore. 

V ends with a shot of Paul Kersey, a 70-something-year-old man, who has had his entire family murdered over the past two decades, a man who has killed literally hundreds of men in both New York City and Los Angeles, walking through a door and cheerfully offering a police chief help if he ever needs any future help cleaning up the streets.

What an absurd, flawed film franchise. I love it, even if this last entry is a dud.