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Death Wish 2 |  | Director: Michael Winner
Actors: Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Vincent Gardenia, J.D. Cannon, Anthony Franciosa
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $5.21
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Rating:  50 reviews
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 88 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.5
MPN: 1005978
ISBN: 0792859480
UPC: 027616902092
EAN: 9780792859482
Theatrical Release Date: February 20, 1982
Release Date: February 3, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Paul Kersey is not your ordinary victim: He fights back with a vengeance! Legendary tough guy Charles Bronson resumes his trademark role as the hard-as-nails urban avenger in this hard-hitting, action-packed sequel! With the murder of his wife and the revenge against her killers now behind him, Kersey begins a new life in LA. But tragedy is never far from his door, and when a group of local hoo |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 3-FEB-2004
Media Type: DVD
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 50
 MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIMES... September 27, 2009
Lou Almighty
...remains DEATH WISH II. Yes, that's right, NOT the original, but the sequel. In the sequel Paul Kersey does get equal and he is cooler than ever ("Do you believe in Jesus"). This certainly is the KING of all vigilante/revenge films, although slightly trimmed by the MPAA for an R rating - but still great!
I LOVED this movie and anyone who believes in justice and is offended by how much injustice is happening in America (and the rest of the world) will too. Sometimes it helps just watching someone blow away the f***ing scum!
 Low budget cheese... December 27, 2008
Honest John (Falls Church, VA United States)
It's a shame Charles Bronson didn't have the budget, writing, casting, and production resources that Stephen Segal, Schwartzenegger, and other great action film guys had. He was great in big budget films when he had first-rate directors and casting like "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape". But as much as I wanted to like Bronson in his own "kill the bad guys" films, they are nothing more than poor imitations of the multitude of cheap TV shows from the 1970's produced by Stephen J. Cannell. I paid the price to discover the truth about this movie. You shouldn't if you're smart...
 Consequences of Actions November 10, 2008
Bradley Headstone (New York)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm at a point in my life where watching movies like this kind of goes against my nature. But that said, this is probably a better movie than a lot of people would like to admit. very quickly, these movies were made at a time when people felt helpless, and people wanted a hero like the dangerous architect.
Charles Bronson never really looks for trouble, but it has a way of finding him. Many would chalk this up as of course being required for the sequel, but there is some realism to this. (The character who doesn't look for trouble, but is often found by trouble.) The movie wastes little time. Charles visits his injured daughter (from part 1) and is trying to start his life over. He runs into some thugs, but Charles flips the tables on them. Not being too bright, the thugs decide to give Charles more trouble by raping his housekeeper and kidnapping his daughter. (I say not too bright because if they had left town, they probably would have gotten away. But by kidnapping, they have now involved themselves in a Federal offense.)
Charles's daughter dies soon afterwards. As expected, Charles gets little help from the police. When he says: "There really isn't any use," his intentions are so obvious. What I find interesting about this movie is we can see consequences of actions work both ways. The first is obvious. The thugs that have once bullied Charles (who was just minding his own business) are now reduced to tears as Charles taunts them just a bit before he shoots them. "Do you believe in Jesus? Well, you're going to meet him." Another example is when he looks at Jiver, smiles and says: "Goodbye." One tragic scene is after Bronson saves an 'almost rape' victim and her husband, and the police seem more concerned with the fact that the assailants were killed than the condition of the surviving victims (who were just minding their own business).
Undoubtedly, many people are cheering Bronson unconditionally at this point. But there is a fine point worth some attention. (Bronson gets darker as he carries through his revenge. One notable point is that he starts to get dishonest with his possible future wife Ireland.) So, the movie does not glorify revenge 100 %. We see that there may be a price Charles Bronson will have to pay. After Charles Bronson puts a gun/drug deal 'to rest,' he has a moment of quiet peace before he goes after the gang leader Charles Wilson. (We can suspect Wilson's absurd trial is just a setup to provide the conclusion the audience wants.) For an insanity plea to work, the client has to have no idea that what he was doing was wrong, and the evidence needs to be clear and convincing.
It is interesting how the final fight is not one sided. Bronson does take some bad hits, and the fight is not 'hollywood polished' either. It is brutal, and we are once again introduced to how disturbing violence can be. Wilson's death is a tad disturbing despite his crimes. While I don't really like action/revenge movies for the most part, I have to grant that this series at least shows the hero may NOT walk off happily into the sunset. He might survive, but he may have to pay a price as well. While "Death Wish V" was my favorite, I have to admit this 2nd one was pretty good.
Crime is like a disease, Meet the cure September 10, 2008
Taheen Lopez (United States- San Diego, CA)
I would have to say that I not only like DEATH WISH 2 the best out of the whole DEATH WISH saga, this was probably my favorite Charles Bronson movie of them all that I've seen in my lifetime, plus this movie takes me all the way back to memory lane when DEATH WISH II was released in the movies back in the early Spring of 1982 when we had all those budget cuts from the recession we had back in 1981-1982 during Ronald Reagan's presidency and when I saw this movie for the first time when it came out on HBO for the first time back in June 1983 when I was 10 going on 11 years old.
Another thing I liked about DEATH WISH 2 was how Paul Kersey(Charles Bronson) had moved away from New York City to L.A. to start a new life for him and his daughter, but ends up in the same kind of fix he was in on the East Coast when some relentless crooks instigate a problem with Paul Kersey(Charles Bronson) by robbing him and raping both his daughter & housekeeper, which ends up prompting Paul to avenge them and go back to his vigilante lifestyle that he did in the original DEATH WISH when the police are no help at all in DEATH WISH II.
In fact, it was kinda cool how Paul was a vigilante who was so slick on how he killed off all those relentless crooks who killed and raped both his maid & daughter and how he was able to succeed at getting those sadistic bastards where the police were failing and was never able to get caught by the cops either.
In addition to what made DEATH WISH 2 so intriguing was at the beginning of the movie, the newscasters were saying how crime was soaring big time in L.A., but later on the movie, the cops were saying that crimes had began to slump in LA, due to numerous sleazy criminals being afraid of being caught and killed by Paul.
The one thing that didn't make a lot of sense in this movie was the police always seemed to be more concerned about Paul's vigilantism and the crooks involved at the crime scene being killed or shot by Paul than they were about the innocent victims who were hurt by the gruesome criminals that killed and raped Paul's daughter & housekeeper, but I also liked the way Paul had gotten most of those malicious goones begging for mercy not to be killed just before Paul shot & killed them, since they got what they deserved.
The only thing I found to be a shame in this movie was Paul's fiancee(Jill Ireland) breaks off her engagement to Paul after catching him in a lie by finding a copy of a forged ID in the waste basket after hearing the grizzly news on the radio about Charles Wilson(Thomas Duffy) being killed at the same mental institution where Paul posed as a doctor and realizes that Paul has been lying to her about his whereabouts all along when she started getting suspicious about why Paul was becoming more and more distant from her, but it doesn't make sense why Paul acted like it didn't even faze him that his fiancee had broken off their engagement or his fiancee's reason why, since Paul didn't even look or act heartbroken at all, unlike how most people feel when their engagement is broken off in real life.
Dark, brutal, eerie, atmospheric. June 10, 2008
monsieurb54
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The "Death Wish" series is an interesting grab bag of films. The original was a serious look at a potentially possible situation involving an individual taking the law into his own hands due to dissatisfaction with the legal system. DW 3, 4, and 5 were comic-book style action/thrillers with barely any connection to the original.
So "Death Wish 2" lies somewhere in between. Again, the "dark comic" feel is definitely present in this film, but there is a seriousness and believability not found in the other sequels. Here, Bronson isn't wielding chainguns and anti-tank weaponry as he would in the next film, but instead a simple .45 automatic.
"Death Wish 2"'s story is quite simple, and should already be known if you know what happened in the original film. In the first one Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) turns vigilante after his wife is beaten to death and his daughter sexually assaulted by Jeff Goldblum and Co. He hit the streets of wintry 70s NYC to do what he could to stop what had happened to his family from happening to others. "Death Wish 2" takes place in warm retro-80s LA, so immediately the feel is a bit different (warmer maybe?). This time around his maid is raped and murdered by Laurence Fishburne and Co., and rape his daughter AGAIN to the point where she runs in a daze through a window and lands on a conveniently-placed spiked fence. Bronson, of course is not too happy and soon sets out on the streets to find the scum. Whereas in the first film he targeted random thugs, he specifically targets his maid/daughter's violators in this one, giving it a more satisfying feel for the audience.
This is an excellent piece of 80s action/crime cinema. The shaky opening camera shot of the LA sunrise, accompanied by very unsettling music by Jimmy Page, immediately sets the tone and tells viewers there is BIG TROUBLE coming up. The 80s LA atmosphere is amplified greatly and the sleazy, trashy feel of the film is amplified not only by a substantial increase in the graphic nature of the assault scenes and Bronson's pain packages, but also by the excellent soundtrack by Jimmy Page (I think the only reason it was nominated for a Razzie was because it was too discordant for critics). As mentioned previously, a 20-year old Laurence Fishburne make an appearance as one of the rapist thugs as well as Kevyn Major Howard, who would later go on to co-star in "Full Metal Jacket."
In short, this is a visceral and atmospheric retro-80s action flick that fans of Charles Bronson, action, and/or exploitation genres should have no trouble enjoying.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 50
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