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The Gratuitous B-Movie Column: Death Wish 5: The Face of Death
The Gratuitous B-Movie Column Issue #455: Death Wish 5: The Face of Death
The Death Wish Marathon: Week 5
Hello, everyone, and welcome once again to the internets movie review column that has never tried to get involved in the fashion world in any way, shape, or form, mostly because of this issue’s movie, The Gratuitous B-Movie Column, and I am your host Bryan Kristopowitz. In this issue, issue number four hundred and fifty-five, the Death Wish Marathon concludes with Death Wish 5: The Face of Death, which received a limited theatrical release in early January 1994.
Death Wish 5: The Face of Death
Death Wish 5: The Face of Death, also known as Death Wish V: The Face of Death and Death Wish: The Face of Death, is the last Death Wish movie starring Charles Bronson and Bronson’s last movie to receive a theatrical release of any kind (his last acting jobs were on television with a trio of movies he made for CBS in the 1990’s). Directed by Allan A. Goldstein, The Face of Death is a solid action flick that doesn’t try to be anything more than that. Bronson, while obviously much older, is still game as architect-turned-vigilante Paul Kersey to whip out a snub nosed .357 magnum and start wasting criminal scumbags. That is, after all, what Paul Kersey does.
The Face of Death has Bronson’s Kersey back in New York City, living under a new name (Paul Stewart) and working as a college professor (he teaches architecture). Kersey also has a new girlfriend, a fashion designer named Olivia Regent (Lesley-Anne Down). Kersey and Regent are deeply in love, with Regent’s daughter Chelsea (Erica Lancaster) looking at Kersey as her own father. Life is pretty good for Paul Kersey. So, of course, because this is a Death Wish movie, life is going to turn to shit for Kersey and anyone else in Kersey’s general vicinity pretty damn quick.
See, Olivia’s ex-husband and the biological father of Chelsea is Tommy O’Shea (a hilarious Michael Parks), a notorious local mobster who also has an interest in Olivia’s clothing and fashion operation. Kersey meets O’Shea backstage at a fashion show right after O’Shea assaults Olivia, hurting her wrist. O’Shea and his henchmen Sal (Chuck Shamata) and Chuck (Kevin Lund) try to intimidate Kersey, but Kersey is pissed. You don’t fuck around with his girlfriend. This assault is the last straw for Olivia. She wants to get out from under O’Shea’s control, but, at the same time, she doesn’t know how to go about it. If it was fully up to Kersey, he’d just kill the fuckers, but he’s no longer the vigilante. Kersey is also buddies with Brian Hoyle (Saul Rubinek), the district attorney, so it’s not like he can just go back willy nilly to being the vigilante without Hoyle knowing about it (Hoyle got Kersey his new name and job at the college, so Kersey owes him). So Kersey takes Olivia to Hoyle to see if he can help.
Hoyle can help. Sort of. Hoyle has been building a case against O’Shea, but he doesn’t have enough good evidence to take the bastard out. Olivia’s potential testimony and first-hand knowledge of what O’Shea is really up to is exactly what Hoyle needs. She agrees to testify against O’Shea. And that lasts for about five minutes. One night at a restaurant with Kersey (Kersey proposes to her there!), Olivia is attacked in the ladies room by O’Shea’s mega psycho henchman Freddie Flakes (a brilliant Robert Joy). Flakes, dressed as a woman, ties Olivia up and smashes her face repeatedly into a mirror. Kersey eventually takes Olivia to the hospital and finds out that she’ll need major facial reconstructive surgery as a result of the attack. Kersey decides, at that very moment, that he’s had enough of O’Shea and his bullshit and he’s bringing the vigilante out of retirement.
Well, not at that very moment. More bad shit has to happen before the vigilante comes fully out of retirement.
So Kersey starts tailing O’Shea and his henchmen, watches them in action (they extort money, assault people, kill people, generally act like fucking assholes). He doesn’t interfere with O’Shea’s henchmen at this point. He sort of tries to build his own case against them. Kersey watches a police undercover operation involving Olivia’s employee Al (Jefferson Mappin) and a cop (Janice Omori, as played by Lisa Inouye) getting killed when Freddie Flakes decides to go apeshit with his car. Despite these two deaths, the cops and the DA still don’t have enough solid evidence to go after O’Shea. What the fuck?
Kersey brings Olivia home from the hospital. She’s distraught and scared. Her face is messed up and she isn’t sure she can actually go through with testifying against O’Shea. O’Shea is just so vicious and no one seems to be able to stop him. Kersey calls Hoyle and tells him that Olivia isn’t going to testify anymore. It’s at that specific moment that everything turns to shit for Kersey and everyone around him. Posing as the police, O’Shea’s henchmen show up at Olivia’s apartment and blast the shit out of it, trying to kill both Kersey and Olivia in the process. Kersey doesn’t have a weapon, but he manages to keep O’Shea’s henchmen at bay long enough for Olivia to get to the roof and possibly escape. A gunless Kersey is tough, but he’s no match for three heavily armed thugs. Sal and Chuck go directly at Kersey, almost clipping him several times with their machine gun and shotgun, respectively. Flakes gets himself to the roof and takes out Olivia with one shot. Motherfucker.
The assassination of Olivia makes Hoyle send armed guards to Kersey’s house out in the woods. Chelsea is there with Kersey, and Olivia’s killers might try to go after her next. Kersey doesn’t want Hoyle or his men there on his property. They may have guns and the law on their side, but they clearly don’t have it in them to do anything about O’Shea and his scumbag henchmen. Kersey wants Hoyle’s men gone. Kersey’s had enough. He’s tired of fucking around with these assholes. O’Shea and his men, his whole organization, are going to have to pay for what they’ve done.
O’Shea and his henchmen have no idea what they’ve unleashed.
The build to Kersey taking the law into his own hands and killing O’Shea’s henchmen is decent, although it is a bit surprising how long Down’s Olivia manages to survive. We know she’s eventually going to die, but I figured she’s last twenty minutes tops. Olivia actually survives until around the middle of the movie. And when Kersey decides to bring the pain, it is sweet as fuck. Kersey becomes the ultimate slasher assassin, taking out O’Shea’s henchmen in creative ways (he poisons one guy and kills another guy with an exploding soccer ball. Yes, an exploding soccer ball). I just wish O’Shea had more guys for Kersey to kill. I would have loved to see what else Kersey could have come up with.
The final showdown could have used a few more henchmen. It is fun watching Kersey use a forklift as a distraction and a shrink wrap turntable to incapacitate and torture a guy in order to get information out him. When was the last time you saw something like that in any kind of movie? I don’t think it’s been done since. And kudos to director Goldstein for sending one of O’Shea’s henchmen through a big grinder. We don’t get to see the guy go straight through the grinder, but we do see, for a few brief seconds, the aftermath (chunks of flesh and a big canvas sack that turns red because of all of the blood going into it). It’s gross, it’s disgusting, it’s righteous as hell.
The siege on Olivia’s apartment is one of the more insane action scenes of the 1990’s, with Bronson’s stunt double having to run through all sorts of exploding wood and shit in order to escape. The gunfire in this sequence is so relentless it really looks like there’s a chance Kersey might not survive it. The bit where Kersey jumps off the roof of the building in slow motion is a tad ridiculous, especially after seeing Olivia take a nosedive after being shot in the back mere seconds before, but it’s still a highlight of the movie.
And then there’s the big car stunt where Flakes hits both Al and Detective Omori. Holy shit. The slow motion hit through the big window is insane, and the sideswipe of Omori is one of the best looking “person-hit-by-a-car-in-a-movie” sequences of all time. The way she flips in the air is a thing of beauty.
If you read Paul Talbot’s Bronson’s Loose!, you know that Bronson had no intention of making another Death Wish movie after this one. He wasn’t getting along with 21st Century Films head Menahem Golan, he was seven years older since Death Wish 4, and he apparently just didn’t have it in him anymore to be Paul Kersey, man of action. Golan also apparently wanted to make a new Death Wish franchise with a younger actor (the much talked about Death Wish 6: The New Vigilante). And yet the movie seems to end on a note of “there could be more” with Bronson as Kersey. The movie doesn’t end with Kersey finally putting his guns away and retiring completely to teaching and raising Chelsea. Kersey walks away at the end of the movie still pissed off and still ready to throw down. I’d suspect that, had The Face of Death been a major box office success, Bronson would have been compelled somehow to return. Despite advancing age, there was just no stopping Paul Kersey.
And Bronson is once again superb as Paul Kersey. He’s just a guy who wants to have a family and a normal life, and yet bad shit keeps happening to him and the people around him and he’s compelled to take action. He’s much more world weary than usual here, and his sort of low level cantankerousness is fun to watch. You know that he’s going to get super pissed off at some point and start kicking ass, but you don’t quite know when he’s going to hit full pissed off and go. Bronson also seems to still be in decent enough shape here. His stunt double is clearly doing the big and dangerous stuff, but Bronson can still throw a punch and wield a gun with the best of them. And check out his little smile after killing Chuck and Freddie Flakes. Kersey is a little different here. He’s actively enjoying killing these sacks of shit. It’s fun and kind of scary to see that.
I’d also like to know if there’s any significance to the handgun Bronson uses here. In parts 1, 3, and 5, he uses a revolver (well, he uses the Wildey in part 3 for the majority of his gun wielding screen time, but the first time we see him in part 3 he’s carrying a .38). In part 2 he uses some sort of Beretta, and in part 4 he uses a Walther handgun. Was that deliberate or merely a coincidence?
Michael Parks is brilliant as mobster Tommy O’Shea. He’s a total psycho asshole, yes, but he says just about everything with a glint in his eye. Only a guy like Parks could have pulled that off. Take the scene where O’Shea cuts Al’s stomach with the saw. It’s an unpleasant, sadistic scene, very hard to watch. And yet, with Parks in full on asshole mode, it’s not as unpleasant as it should be. And I should be outraged by the way Parks treats his girlfriend Maxine (Claire Rankin). I’m not, though. I do wish Parks got in one last quip before being pushed into the acid bath. Is there one on the cutting room floor that has never been released because no one knows where it is? I wouldn’t doubt it.
Lesley-Anne Down is excellent as Kersey’s girlfriend Olivia. She has terrific chemistry with Bronson (you believe they could be a real couple). She doesn’t get to be all that proactive (she spends most of the movie getting her ass kicked by someone), which may dismay some people (I’ll admit, it dismays me a bit). It would have been nice to see her get to kick someone in the balls. Didn’t happen, though. At least Kersey gets revenge for her.
Robert Joy is a hoot as henchman Freddie Flakes. He’s a crossdresser, he’s paranoid, he’s sadistic, and he has a gorgeous girlfriend. He’s the total package. He’s also got a major dandruff problem. What the hell is the deal with that? You’ll love his performance (he’s always good in everything, isn’t he?) and you’ll love the way Kersey takes him out. Chuck Shamata and Kevin Lund are just as sadistic as Sal and Chuck, but they don’t have the same kind of style or charisma as Joy. You’ll like how they go out, too.
Saul Rubinek does a fine job as the DA Brian Hoyle. He has an easy friend chemistry with Bronson and you feel for him when you realize what kind of situation he’s in when it comes to Kersey. He knows who Kersey is, he knows what he’s likely to do, and he sort of supports him (he wouldn’t have given Kersey a new identity if he didn’t), but he’s also a man who believes in the law. How the hell is he going to reconcile all of that in the end? It’s too bad that Miguel Sandoval’s Hector Vasquez turned out to be such a piece of shit. I liked him.
Death Wish 5: The Face of Death is damn good action flick. It’s also a great way to end the Death Wish series. Paul Kersey experiences massive heartbreak again, but he’s also through fucking around. He’s going to do what he should have done in the first place. Paul Kersey is going to take out the bad guys, one by one. Or several at a time, if he can get them to bunch up.
Ha.
See Death Wish 5: The Face of Death. See it, see it, see it.
So what do we have here?
Dead bodies: 12
Explosions: A couple. One of them is so damn awesome you’ll want to watch it again and again.
Nudity?: Some. It’s not unappealing.
Doobage: Backstage fashion hooey, casual nudity, assholes in limos, picking on a fat guy, former wife abuse, total mannequin destruction, fat guy stomach cutting via some kind of saw, face slashing, casual racism, living out in the woods, a ring box, light bondage, a full on bathroom assault, a Band-Aid gag, face smashed into a mirror multiple times, off screen facial surgery, a wall safe, steam press torture, attempted hidden wire, knife through the top of the hand, major car assault, guy knocked through a restaurant window in brutal slow motion, an insane “car-hits-a-person” stunt, tailing, multiple briefcases full of money, machine gun hooey, shotgun hooey, a full on firearms assault with exploding and splintered wood everywhere, fake potted plant to the face, roof diving, roof diving into a pile of garbage, a seriously old housekeeper, face punching, multiple audio flashbacks, major food poisoning, multiple mob funerals, a sex-a-rama fashion show, off screen hand job, a remote control soccer ball, a wonderful bath exploding soccer ball with a terrific man-on-fire bit, two to the chest, freaking out on a girlfriend, a box full of guns, forklift hooey, exploding crate, exploding forklift, mannequin hooey, using a shrink wrap turn table to wrap up a guy, guy on a hook, hand biting, attempted knife throwing, henchman turned into bloody hamburger via a massive shredder, broken beer bottle to the face, an acid bath, and a long walk down a lit hallway.
Kim Richards?: Attempted.
Gratuitous: Charles Bronson, Charles Bronson “back in New York City,” a New York City that’s obviously not New York City, Michael Parks, Lesley-Anne Down, sort of slow motion, low budget fashion show hooey, Charles Bronson living out in the woods, smooth bar jazz, Robert Joy, Robert Joy as a cross dresser, multiple audio flashbacks, time card changing, Charles Bronson through fucking around, Charles Bronson jogging, Charles Bronson not knowing what the hell is going on, Charles Bronson reading the newspaper, Michael Parks saying “Freddie is in the womb,” a remote control soccer ball bomb, a mobster complaining about his blood pressure, a gravelly voiced henchman, Charles Bronson using a forklift, Charles Bronson going apeshit, and, once again, Charles Bronson through fucking around.
Best lines: “Say shit. Shit. There you go,” “Olivia, where is he?,” “Look at ya. You look like a beached whale,” “Hey, I make you the head nigga and you talk to me like that?,” “Hey, Reg, take your problems up with the NWACP,” “Guns make you nervous? Guns have their uses. Idiots with guns make me nervous,” “To us,” “Goddamn dandruff,” “The next time your daughter won’t have a mother!,” “His name is Freddie Flakes. He has some kind of skin condition,” “I can see I’m wasting my time with you,” “I usually get a shower with that,” “I bet you it smarts, eh?,” “Well, Reg, now you’re all straightened out,” “Albert, be very careful,” “What about the laundry shipment coming in this afternoon?,” “Thanks, Albert. Goodbye, Albert,” “Sometimes the law works. And sometimes it doesn’t,” “Sixteen years. That’s a long time to be failing,” “Olivia, you don’t know how hard it is for me to say this, but let the law handle Tommy,” “Peek a boo,” “Hi, Paul. Say what you came to say,” “Well, boys, tomorrow is the big day,” “What’s happening here? What’s going on?,” “Sonofabitch is quick,” “That looks perfect,” “Congratulations. I see you finally got a customer,” “You got a problem?,” “He treated me like shit. I can’t believe I miss him,” “Oh my God, look at that,” “Max. Slither over my way,” “Have you heard the name Paul Kersey?,” “You know, Kersey is going to be going down the list,” “Scumbag,” “A birthday present? A treat for someone special,” “Damn, you look good in that outfit. Do you think it will fit me?,” “I’ll give you some buttons to push,” “Hey, Freddie, I’m going to take care of your dandruff problem for you,” “You want to get that? That’s why they pay you the big bucks,” “I didn’t think it would be this easy, Kersey. Neither did I,” “No judge, no jury, no appeals, no deals,” “Ship him to New Jersey,” “Angel, check out the toys,” “Rock and roll your butts downstairs and give Mr. Kersey the warmest of welcomes,” “Chelsea, you better come over here you little shit,” “Where’s the girl?,” “What are you going to do? I’m going to help you remember,” “Memory any better?,” “I’m coming for you, O’Shea,” “Don’t even think it,” “You wouldn’t shoot an unarmed man, would you?,” “How did that feel you sonofabitch?,” “Guns make you nervous?,” “Whatever you want, whatever you need. I don’t need anything. But you, you need a bath,” and “Hey, Lieutenant, if you need any help give me a call.”
Rating: 8.0/10.0
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The Gratuitous B-Movie Column: The Facebook Page!
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Check out my review of the new Death Wish starring Bruce Willis!
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Ranking the Death Wish movies
Like I did with most of the other “marathons” I’ve done, I’ve decided to use the end of the marathon to reveal how I rank the movies in the series. I’m only ranking the Death Wish movies that Charles Bronson did, so the Bruce Willis remake will not appear here. And while one movie wins and one movie finishes last, that doesn’t mean I don’t love all of the Death Wish movies (I do). Do you agree with my rankings? Disagree? Let me know in the comments below.
Death Wish 3
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown(tied)
Death Wish(tied)
Death Wish II
Death Wish 5: The Face of Death
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Things to Watch Out For This Week
–Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The latest Star Wars flick, The Last Jedi, makes its home video debut this week. I’m sure it will do big business on the various formats that it will be offered on (the Blu-ray will have all of the cool special features, while the DVD will have, maybe, one of the trailers. Maybe). I thought this movie was okay to decent, definitely better than The Force Awakens, but it wasn’t great, which is a shame. I want all Star Wars movies to be great. Hopefully, episode IX will turn out to be great. I’m not banking on it, though. I just don’t see it happening. Oh, and check out my detailed thoughts on The Last Jedi here, just in case you didn’t see them before.
–Acts of Violence: Big Bruce Willis is back in low budget action movie land with this movie, although I don’t think he’s the actual star of it (I think it’s more like he’s just in it). Cole Hauser, Ashton Holmes, and Shawn Ashmore, I assume, are the actual stars of the movie, as they take up more trailer time than Willis. And Mike Epps, who had an uncredited part in the Death Wish reboot, is the bad guy in this. The movie looks to be all about human trafficking and sex trafficking, with women being kidnapped and whatnot and sold into sex slavery. People who have seen it compare it to Taken but not favorably. I think it looks decent. I really need to check out some of these low budget Bruce Willis movies. Perhaps that should be a marathon one month.
–Painkiller: This is some sort of low budget sort of action-horror flick about a prisoner who is given an experimental lethal injection that somehow makes the inmate immortal. Once that happens, the other prisoners in the prison try to become immortal, too. Or something like that. It looks both kind of cool and absolutely ridiculous, which can be a good combination if handled well. The fine folks at ITN Distribution are behind this release. Rentable, just to see if it’s any good.
–Assault on Precinct 13/Prince of Darkness: The fine folks at Shout! Factory are behind these new Blu-ray editions of two John Carpenter classics. The first is Carpenter’s superb action thriller Assault on Precinct 13, featuring the badass prisoner Napoleon Wilson, the badass cop Lt. Ethan Bishop, and the ruthless street gang that, when trying to get into the police station, resemble the zombies in Night of the Living Dead. Just an awesome, awesome movie. The second movie is Carpenter’s weird as hell Prince of Darkness, the second part of his “Apocalypse Trilogy.” This movie will freak you the hell out. These new Blu-rays come in new packaging and have new special features, including interviews, commentary tracks, and all sorts of other stuff. If you’re a John Carpenter nerd these are must owns. And, heck, they’re coming from Shout! Factory. They always put out a terrific home video release.
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Ash vs. Evil Dead is back!
Check out my reviews for the third season below!
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
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B-Movie News
–New Scott Adkins movie The Debt Collector trailer released: And, man, it looks like a hoot. Adkins stars alongside Louis Mandylor as two guys who end up working for a criminal organization run by Vladimir Kulich, collecting debts and beating the crap out of people along the way. Adkins and Mandylor end up becoming sort of good guys when they decide to protect someone who doesn’t deserve to get his or her ass kicked. The trailer, listed as the flick’s “international trailer,” is fabulous, and shows that The Debt Collector is something worth seeing when it hits home video on June 5th. Michael Pare is in it, too, along with Tony Todd. Holy shit, Tony Todd? When was the last time he did an action movie?
Man, I can’t wait to see this. Again, the movie hits home video on June 5th. It was directed by the great Jesse V. Johnson.
–New Gary Daniels movie coming out June 5th, too: According to this article over at Action Flix, the new Gary Daniels movie is called Astro and is all about Daniels having to fight an alien that comes to Earth via a private space shuttle. Michael Pare and Louis Mandylor are also in it, along with Marshal Hilton. All three of those guys are also in The Debt Collector.
A trailer hasn’t been released for Astro, at least not as I write this, but who the heck wouldn’t want to watch Gary Daniels fight a goddamn alien? I’ll try to keep everyone posted about a trailer release. June 5th is looking like a great day to buy DVDs and whatnot.
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Who is the Douchebag of the Week? Go here and find out!
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Next Issue: Anthology April begins with Creepshow!
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Interviews
david j. moore
Jino Kang
Vladimir Kulich
Paul Mormando
Michael Matteo Rossi
Tyrone Magnus
Hector Barron
Jeffrey Orgill
Michael Baumgarten
R. Marcos Taylor
Don “The Dragon” Wilson
Paul Kyriazi
Eric Jacobus
Juju Chan
Luke LaFontaine
Marco Siedlemann
Sam Firstenberg
Amariah Olson
Alexander Nevsky
Mathias Hues
Kristanna Loken
Steve Mitchell
Albert Pyun
Brad Thornton
Mathieu Ratthe
Damien Power
Kelsey Carlisle
Mike Dwyer
Nicholas Bushman
Brahim Achabbakhe
Etcetera
Richard LeMay
Andrew David Barker
Cynthia Rothrock
Leslie Simpson
C. Courtney Joyner
Eric Miller
Alexander Nevsky (2)
Christopher Lawrence Chapman
James Mark
Casper Van Dien
Chris Mark
James E. Wilson
Barry Hunt
Vincent J. Roth
Mathew Ziff
Brandon Tyler Russell
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Well, I think that’ll be about it for now. Don’t forget to sign up with disqus if you want to comment on this article and any other 411 article. You know you want to, so just go do it.
B-movies rule. Always remember that.
Death Wish 5: The Face of Death
Charles Bronson– Paul Kersey
Lesley-Anne Down– Olivia Regent
Michael Parks– Tommy O’Shea
Robert Joy– Freddie Flakes
Chuck Shamata– Sal Paconi
Kevin Lund– Chuck Paconi
Saul Rubinek– Brian Hoyle
Miguel Sandoval– Hector Vasquez
Kenneth Welsh– Lt. Mickey King
Lisa Inouye– Janice Omori
Erica Lancaster– Chelsea Regent
Jefferson Mappin– Albert
Michael Dunston– Reg
Claire Rankin– Maxine
Directed by Allan A. Goldstein
Screenplay by Allan A. Goldstein, based on a story by Michael Colleray and Allan A. Goldstein, based on characters created by Brian Garfield
Distributed by Trimark Pictures, Vidmark Entertainment, and Trimark Home Video
Rated R for graphic violence, language, and nudity.
Runtime– 95 minutes
Buy it here
