Death Wish 3 [1985]

Watch out for a young Alex Winter as a member of the gang, he went on to play Bill in the Bill and Ted movies.


HallowbeDonRevie   July 9, 2004
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I agree with my fellow Leodensien,Childofthecorn,this is,bizarrely,a genuine feel good movie.Peoples' favourite (RIP)Charles Bronson is getting on a bit in this movie but that doesn't stop him choosing to take his annual vacation in an inner city gang stronghold in seemingly terminal decay.Charles has his traditional initial stand off with the local police before being cut loose by them to carry out the dirty work necessary to bring salvation to the neighbourhood.The hoodlums are pure 80s what with laser specs,baseball shoes and the most laughable 'reverse mohican' haircut you ever did see gracing the barnet of the dutifully psychotic gang leader.The gang members throng the streets day and night screaming and sprinting around with admirable gusto until Charles takes them to task 'pacifying'them with his now polished vigilante techniques.The neighbourhood kinda reminded me of our own Beck Hill and Hawksworth suburbs here in Leeds.This film was,for me,the golden apex of Bronson's career.Watch it.


A great fun eighties action movie   January 11, 2006
alanf1135 (Greenock, Scotland)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is an under-rated eighties action movie and a great vehicle for Charles Bronson. I mean, there are hardly any other actors in their sixties who can get away with sprinting about like a teenager, take on a gang of maurading yobs and being chased after by a woman nearly half this age!!!

The film tides along at a pace of increasing bigger setpieces kept in place by glorious one-liners delivered by a deadpan Bronson until an over the top riot with Bronson shooting from the hip with a MP60 heavy machine gun with a friend holding the ammo belt in a cardboard box.

This is an almost tounge-in-check parody of the first two Death Wish films yet it works as a solid action movies that delivers excitement and an oddly feel-good factor.

Another guaranteed movie for a night-in!!!


Bad Eighties Action Masterpiece.   May 26, 2007
Mr. M. Leek (Guildford, England.)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This morning, between 1am and 3am, I watched Death Wish III. This film contains such horrendous acting, such poor sound quality, such terrible editing, such a shockingly hopeless script that it is an absolute masterpiece and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. This is a juggernaut of bad 80s action. Released in 1985 (a fact that is somehow amazing in itself) this film simply cannot be taken seriously on any level although I seem to recall watching it as a child and being terrified. In one particular scene a mysterious friend, whom Charles Bronson has been talking about from the moment of his arrival in the New York Projects, arrives. Who is this friend ... some form of hand gun that makes anything Clint Eastwood ever used look like an inadequate water pistol passed onto him by the Mickey Mouse gang. Bronson goes on to explain that the bullets are the same as those used in elephant hunting apart from that fact that he has taken each and every one and cut the tip off to make the impact all the more extreme. He takes this handheld piece of Armageddon, places it under his belt, and says `I'm going to get ice cream. What? This IS America.' It is delicious in its mind numbing lust for war. This ultimately results in a visit from the chief of police, who asks: `could you just slow down? The Morgue is having to take on extra help to deal with all the bodies'. It is side-splitting. It gets funnier from here but I won't bore you with every scene... watch the film and savour it.


paul kersey   September 29, 2006
Mr. Russell C. Witheyman
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

Death wish 3 was a turning point for the series..gone was the more serious thought provoking man in turmoil stuff of the first two movies and in was a more comic book approach to the material. This was made in 1985 when stallone and scwarzenneger etc were blasting the screens with their big guns and gung-ho violence. Obviously canon films and director michael winner saw an oppertunity with an already established character to rival other action films. DW 3 is not a bad film..bronson is as charming and watchable as ever and some of the action particulary at the end is well handled. The street gang however is more comic book and you never really feel the threat from them that the punks from the first two films conveyed. These bad guys are a bit cliche..punk hairstyles..which every 80's street gang seemed to have even though punk was 10 years previous..lol The series continued in Death wish 4 and 5 but these followed a similar path to this..If your new to the death wish films i'd advise to get the first two but forget the others.