Death Sentence (2007)
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Theatrical Release: Aug 31, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $9,479,756
Synopsis: A white-collar revenge fantasy in the vein of DEATH WISH (and based on a novel by the same author, Brian Garfield), DEATH SENTENCE ponders the nature and limits of retribution, asking if murder can ever be justified. Director James Wan (SAW) delivers a high-end exploitation film, complete... A white-collar revenge fantasy in the vein of DEATH WISH (and based on a novel by the same author, Brian Garfield), DEATH SENTENCE ponders the nature and limits of retribution, asking if murder can ever be justified. Director James Wan (SAW) delivers a high-end exploitation film, complete with a washed-out, grainy appearance and some startling violence, but with complex, thrilling action sequences. Kevin Bacon is Nick Hume, a successful businessman with two children and a lovely wife (Kelly Preston). While driving home from his older, college-bound son's hockey game, Nick must pull into a gas station in a tough part of town. When the boy goes into the store to buy a drink, his throat is slit during a bloody robbery attempt. Nick identifies the killer, but with him as the only witness, the case is unable to go to trial. Discovering that the murder was merely a gang initiation, Nick is pushed over the edge, taking on the deadly gang headed by the fierce Billy Darley (Garrett Hedlund). Payback becomes all-encompassing for Nick: it not only takes over his life, but it also causes a startling physical transformation. Wan forgoes emotional impact in favor of souped-up, visceral, and occasionally thrilling setpieces. Bacon makes Nick's transformation from a suburban, suit-and-tie family man into a gaunt, shaved-headed angel of death startling and believable. Full of interesting contradictions, DEATH SENTENCE lets viewers have it both ways--fulfilling their bloodlust while ensuring that Nick's targets are despicable people who deserve their fates. Ultimately, though it serves to remind us that, as a solution, violence only begets more violence. [More]
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Theatrical Release, Action, Gangs, Violence, Revenge
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund, Kelly Preston, Aisha Tyler, John Goodman
Screenwriter: Ian Mackenzie Jeffers
Producer: Ashok Amritraj, Howard Baldwin, Karen Baldwin
Composer: Charlie Clouser
DVD Info
Release:
Jan 8, 2008
DVD Features:
- Keep Case
- Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, Spanish
- Subtitles - English, French, Spanish - Optional
Additional Release Material:
- Behind the Scenes - 1. "Fox Movie Channel Presents DEATH SENTENCE: Making A Scene"
- 2. Webisodes (10)
- Featurettes - "Fox Movie Channel Presents: Life After Film School with Kevin Bacon"
Interactive Features:
- Branching Footage - Unrated Version (10 min.)
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
It's a powerful, visceral revenge flick, and Kevin Bacon does a fine acting job bringing the vigilante to life.
A gritty and gripping revenge fantasy %u2026 Kevin Bacon's talent and persona to make us sit up and take notice
Death Sentence is a laughably bad exercise in the pornography of sadism and the American appetite which voraciously consumes it.
I really enjoyed what [it] had to offer with takes on morals, war, and the damage violence can do to people in its grasp...
Bacon, as usual, is very good even when he's slumming, and as a trashy B-movie redo of Death Wish the movie works well enough for a Saturday afternoon with a case of brewskies.
Death Sentence tries to do two things: be a stirring family drama and a balls-out gore soaked revenge flick. It achieves only one of those goals.
This graphically violent film suffers from cursorily developed characters whose primary function is to advance the creaky plot.
...the film's schizophrenic nature eventually proves to be its downfall...
The graininess of the film generally makes everything look as ugly as it feels. Death Sentence deserves no reprieve.
Think of it as one long worship service in the Church of Vigilante Justice.
Even with its overly stylized look and cartoonish bad guys, Death Sentence is not a film that you can easily shake off.
Death Sentence is a better film than many might expect and also delivers several good doses of action for fans of shoot 'em-ups.
Exploitive and overwrought with extreme violence - one of the worst movies so far this year.
The best that can be said about 'Death Sentence' is that it doesn't try to be too deep or arty.
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