Death Wish (2018)

Death Wish (2018) is the kind of lean, hard-driving revenge thriller that knows exactly what it is: a brisk, street-level pulse-raiser built around Bruce Willis’s steady, wounded resolve as an ordinary man pushed past his limits. Eli Roth keeps the movie moving with a blunt, efficient momentum, staging its Chicago-nightmare set pieces with the snap of a genre craftsman and an ear for the way modern media turns violence into spectacle. It’s grim and often brutal rather than stylish, but that seriousness gives the action a jagged edge and makes the moral unease part of the ride instead of an afterthought. If you’re looking for a thoughtful debate about vigilantism, this may feel too direct and dirty; if you want a competent, popcorn-ready thriller that doesn’t waste time getting to the point, it hits like a clenched fist.

Death Wish (2018) is clearly aiming for a modern, crowd-pleasing revenge thriller about a decent man pushed past his limit, with Eli Roth leaning into slick, punchy violence and a tabloid-news vibe. The problem is it often feels like a paint-by-numbers remake: the story beats are predictable, the tone wobbles between grim tragedy and almost casual wish-fulfillment, and the movie’s take on vigilantism is messy enough to feel more accidental than provocative. Bruce Willis has moments of weary presence, but the performance is notably flat for a role that needs either real anguish or real menace to land. If you want a simple, violent catharsis fantasy and can stomach a brutal home-invasion setup, it’ll pass the time; if you’re looking for moral clarity, emotional depth, or the grit of the original, you’ll likely leave annoyed.