Il giustiziere della notte 3

There are few movies out there that can honestly be called classics, Deathwish 3 is one. I must have watched this movie dozens of times, yet each time it is just as ridiculously funny. From the outset the movie explodes with laughs. Kersey's trip to jail, where he is threatened by some thug, who apparently high on goof balls, decides to attack the most giant guy in the jail for no reason and is bloodily beaten down. At this point he turns back to Kersey and curses him like it is his fault! Make no sense? Don't let that stop you, there is more where that came from. Next the police inspector beating Kersey up, then abruptly out of nowhere saying, `you see, I'm a big fan of yours'! . There are so many other hilarious plot inconsistencies. Mr.Kaprov saying `Mr.Kersey, it's 90 degrees outside!' as he is wearing a full shirt and thick sweater! Or Kersey's friend Charlie, who somehow managed to smuggle back two massive machine guns from Korea. Did he take that in his carryon luggage on the trip back? Add to all this lame romance that Kersey and the public defender have and you have the making of a masterpiece. For whatever reason, the desperate woman wants a date with Kersey. The romance that ensues is epic, until unfortunately, like all women that Kersey dates, she is horribly killed. The final piece of the puzzle is some of the best one liners in any movie. Some include, `it's your wife, she is sick or... something' Fraker, `bulletproof just like yours asshole' Fraker, `they call him the giggler, he laughs when he runs' Bennet, "I'll kill a little old lady for you. Catch it on the 6 o'clock news!" Fraker. I could go on and on. You owe it to yourself to rent this extraordinary film. Truly one of the greatest ever made!

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.

Most critics seem to have dismissed this film, like so many other Charles Bronson vehicles, as just another patchwork of mindless violence. And while there is a fair amount of mayhem, DEATH WISH 3 is not that awful of an effort, particularly for fans of the series and its star.

This time out, aging Charlie's Paul Kersey is let loose by a police chief desperate to clean up a rough part of New York City. The trigger-happy vigilante moves into the heart of gang territory, where he once again becomes a one-man army in an urban war of good versus evil. Bronson, at least the "older" version, is truly at his best.

I'm not saying DEATH WISH 3 is a classic. Indeed to the discriminating eye it has a plethora of imperfections. The characters are generally made of cardboard. The violence is over the top. A man well into his 60s outruns and outspooks dozens of young punks. But in the tradition of the original DEATH WISH and later films such as FALLING DOWN with Michael Douglas, it has a definite crowd-pleasing charm. Who doesn't want to see gangbangers get their due? There are also some great cheesy moments and one-liners so common in 1980s films. When a tenant of his apartment building sees Kersey setting up a booby trap, for instance, the vigilante lightheartedly says he's "thinning the herd." A line only Bronson can truly make work.

So you see, the key to enjoying DEATH WISH 3 is to accept it for what it is. It ain't Spielberg and it ain't art. So throw the popcorn in the microwave and have fun with it.

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 *****.

What a romp this is. The great Kersey (Charles Bronson), ignoring advice to lay low for a while (like ten years!), relocates his trigger finger and bad attitude to New York City.

A long sequence where Kersey runs the streets shooting at everything in sight redefines this as a crazy modern Western. All sense goes out the window and the angry vigilante's original reasons for revenge fade slowly into the bullet-ridden background.

You get exploded thugs, burning cars, bodies through glass, dozens of bullet-riddled corpses and a lurid directing style that is perfect for the material.

Not as fine as DEATH WISH 2, but fine, nevertheless.