Death Wish 3 - Die Rächer von New York

Thus continues Paul Kersey's journey through lands densely populated with criminals...

In this installment, yet another of Paul's friends dies at the hands of thugs. But Paul's not going to stand for it-- he'll take the law into his own hands! Again! Naturally, the dark spectre of crime follows him like a bad penny. In a single afternoon he witnesses more felonies than most of us will see in a lifetime.

Paul's new neighborhood is a checkerboard of cinder-blocked windows, bodegas, flophouses and piles of rubble. His slum is populated by various law-abiding ethnic types being tormented by a motley gang of knuckleheads who aren't willing to let Paul take control of their turf. Some of the ne'er do wells have a funny logo painted on their foreheads. By day and night they rape, pillage, murder and invade the homes of innocents.

Yet -- paradoxically -- the area remains bustling with civilized activity. In the face of danger, its citizens brazenly (or ignorantly) go about their lives. But there is a stiff penalty to pay for such defiance and only the swift arm of Paul Kersey can put it right, all the while inventing new ways to extract teeth from would-be burglars.

Classic formulaic film-making from Cannon films!

6/10

Paul Kersey(Charles Bronson) turns into a one man army when Fraker terrorizes the old people who can't afford to move out, seems these punks need a lesson in manners and Bronson is there to deliver it. Whether it's by using a board to smash anyone who opens the window, putting a bed of nails by the window to prevent someone from setting foot in his house or using big game pistol gunfire to keep giggling thieves at bay, Bronson is determined to give these punks a lesson in etiquette. Back in the 80's no film was half as cool as a movie with an action star and a giant body count. Death Wish 3 was no exception and while I loved the movie as a teenager, it's only fitting that I bought the DVD and love it even more today. Cannon films were awesome back in the day, they made terrible movies, sure, but more often then not it was campy bad movie fun, not unlike this one. Indeed where as you can only watch a good movie once, you can watch this one ten times and never grow tired of it. I could watch this over and over again and I may just pick up another DVD just in case I ware it out. I think that speaks for itself.

* *1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)

I'm having a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to rate this movie. As an actual film, it can't honestly score more than one star out of five. As pure cheese however, you'd have to give this movie a straight up five out of five.

This is probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The catch is, it's so bad that it's actually good. Make sense? The movie is infinitely rewatchable and you can always find something new to laugh at every time you pop this sucker in the player. There is very little to tell you about this movie other than if you haven't seen it, you need to. It's unbelievably violent and Ol' Chuck mows down at least a hundred gang members throughout the film's ninety minutes.

I can write an entire dissertation on this film but I've already seen it done on the Web on quite a few sites so I'm not going to bother. Just to remind you, the movie is so bad and unintentionally funny (watching the film again, it'd make sense if the filmmakers were going for laughs) that if you haven't seen it, you need to.

I'll leave you to ponder this one scene and decide for yourselves whether or not this movie is for you or not: Gang bikers come down the street. Angry civilians wait with a chain stretched across the road. Bikers come and are clotheslined off of their bikes when the chain is yanked upwards. While the bikers are on the floor, the civilians come out and shoot all of them, point blank while they lay writhing on the floor. Men, women and oh yes, children come out and join in the festivities, dancing around the dead bodies of the bikers.

Sigh. Instant classic.

RATING: * out of *****.

SHLOCK-O-CHEESE RATING: ***** out of *****.

The third film of the Death Wish series is probably the worst of them, but it's a guilty pleasure of mine. I do so love the violence when the East New York neighborhood awakes and throws off the rule of punks.

After roaming the streets of New York in the first film and going back to Los Angeles in the second, Charles Bronson as the legendary urban vigilante Paul Kersey returns to New York to visit an old friend who is found murdered. He's questioned, but let go, but the police captain of the beleaguered 75th precinct which in real life does include the East New York area of Brooklyn, Ed Lauter, let's him go with a promise to unofficially do his vigilante thing in that neighborhood. It's getting so that the punks are seriously challenging the citizens in population growth.

Back in the day the East New York area was this middle class neighborhood of homes and churches that so typified Brooklyn. It became a prime example of urban decay. I well recall a local Assemblyman Vito P. Battista who also ran for Mayor of New York several times, declaring that it looked like London after the Blitz. Vito wasn't far wrong. And that is the real East New York you are seeing, lots of blocks of abandoned buildings and empty lots.

As in all Death Wish 3 films Bronson gets himself a woman and it's her death that galvanizes him into action. In this case it's Deborah Raffin who the punks set up in a fiery car crash.

That last half hour of Death Wish 3 is an urban fantasy when the whole neighborhood becomes a battleground as Bronson leads an aroused populace to clean up the neighborhood. Can't describe it, you've got to see it to believe it. More urban slime gets eradicated here than in all the other Death Wish films put together.

You have to see Death Wish 3, it's trashy, it's one of the most politically incorrect films ever made and great fun.

Oh my word!! I have never seen a film so lacking in any kind of moral judgement or consideration for anything other than the death of the scum! Michael Winner here makes a valid observation of human desires in displaying a gung-ho troth world of deep and damaged execution. Not only does he spoon feed us with utter hell on earth seen through the face of the moustached Bronson, but he also shows us the spoon he's feeding us with and says "look at what your watching now look at your self and ask the question: Are you enjoying this?" And even though you'll tell yourself NO IT CAN'T BE!!!! You'll know that deep down inside you'll know...it's a masterpiece