|
Movie Posters with your favorite stars along with
celebrity photos taken from your favorite box office blockbuster
movies. Enjoy browsing these awesome movie images. Click on the link
to purchase from the poster company it comes from or to see larger
images of the movie poster thumbnail.
Death Wish II (1982)
After Bronson's hesitance to play the Paul Kersey role a second time,
Death Wish II was released to the United States in February 1982. It
was produced by exploitation giant Cannon Films, which had purchased
rights to the Death Wish concept from De Laurentiis. First planned for
Cannon executive Menahem Golan to direct, Michael Winner eventually
returned on Bronson's insistence.
Death Wish II (also known as Death Wish 2 in more recent years) is
generally considered a rehash of the original film with greater
amounts of violence depicted on screen. The script, written by David
Engelbach, moves Kersey to Los Angeles, where he has begun a
relationship with radio journalist Geri Nichols (Jill Ireland). While
Kersey's girlfriend is left unharmed (the only time this occurs in the
series), he loses his mentally scarred daughter and housemaid to
assaults by street thugs.
The first Death Wish sequel makes a complete break from Death Wish and
Death Sentence, Garfield's novel series, and redefines the Paul Kersey
character. Unlike in the original film where he hunts down every
criminal he encounters, Kersey only pursues the violators of his
family. He begins by renting an apartment in a low class area of L.A.
to use as a "headquarters" while he looks for his daughters killers.
Then he prowls back streets, video arcades, and local hangouts for the
criminals. Their faces are burned into his memory.
Of unusual notoriety is the film's score by Led Zeppelin guitarist
Jimmy Page, who is a neighbor of Michael Winner in London. Page's
score was later reused in Death Wish 3 after its role as a temporary
track during that film's editing stage.
Death Wish 3 (1985)
Death Wish 3 is the last film in this series to be directed by Michael
Winner, released to the United States in November 1985. The film was
shot in both New York and London to reduce production costs.
Considered the most over-the-top and outlandish installment of the
series, Death Wish 3 pits Kersey against members of New York street
gangs while receiving support from a local police lieutenant (played
by Ed Lauter). The film focuses more on action sets in the vein of
Rambo and Commando. Kersey is shown firing a Wildey .475 caliber
handgun, a .38 caliber snubnose revolver, a .30 caliber Browning air
cooled machine gun, and a L.A.W.S. handheld rocket launcher.
Widely considered a satire of the vigilante genre and the most popular
Death Wish sequel, Death Wish 3 was written by Don Jacoby, also known
for the science-fiction epic Lifeforce (1985). Jacoby is listed under
pseudonym 'Michael Edmonds' in the movie's final print.
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown is the first film in this series to carry
a subtitle, the first to be directed by someone other than Michael
Winner, and the last to be released by Cannon Films. It was helmed by
J. Lee Thompson, best known in Hollywood for The Guns of Navarone
(1961) and Cape Fear (1962). He also collaborated with Bronson on
several action films during the late 1970s and 1980s.
The Crackdown had a substantially cheaper budget and limited release,
first appearing at U.S. theaters in November 1987. The screenplay by
Gail Morgan Hickman relocates Kersey to Los Angeles where he has begun
a relationship with Karen Sheldon (Kay Lenz), a newspaper reporter.
Sheldon's teenage daughter Erica (Dana Barron) dies after overdosing
on 'crack' cocaine from a local pusher and Kersey begins a
self-contained war against two Los Angeles drug rings with backing
from a third drug trader posing as a 'concerned parent' (John P.
Ryan). Weapons used in this film include an unknown caliber rifle (semiauto)
with scope and silencer, timed explosives, a small but unknown caliber
revolver, an M-16 with M-203 grenade launcher attachment, and an Uzi
submachine gun with silencer (which jams in one scene, forcing Paul to
resort to hand to hand combat).
Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994)
Death Wish V: The Face of Death (also listed as Death Wish 5) is the
final installment of the Death Wish series, as well as Charles
Bronson's final theatrical starring role in the movie industry. This
time the film is produced by 21st Century Film Corporation, a company
under Menahem Golan after Cannon Films' bankruptcy. The film was shot
in Toronto and helmed by Canadian director Allan Goldstein.
Both critics and fans of the series considered it the worst and
weakest installment in the series due to its cheap budget and clichéd
script. The plot takes place in New York despite its Toronto filming
and has Paul Kersey (now under the witness protection program, after
his last escapade) as a college professor of architecture who has
become engaged to Olivia Regent (Lesley-Anne Down), a fashion designer
previously married to Irish mobster Tommy O'Shea (Michael Parks).
O'Shea, looking to take over Regent's clothing firm, arranges her
murder and Kersey takes up arms to avenge her death and to protect her
young daughter Chelsea (Erica Lancaster).
After Death Wish V' s limited release, Bronson and Menahem Golan ended
their working relationship. Golan announced plans for a sixth Death
Wish installment without Bronson, but the film was never made. Rumors
have spread that a remake of the original film is under discussion,
yet it remains a lingering question of who owns rights to the Death
Wish concept.
|
