Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987) - Review

Series: Death Wish (4/5)

Director: J. Lee Thompson

Starring: Charles Bronson, Kay Lenz, John P. Ryan, Perry Lopez, and Danny Trejo

Country: U.S.

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown arrives on the scene and single handedly saves the Death Wish franchise. With a steady balance of drama and action, the film comes as a breath of fresh air after the dull third film. 

It's quite clear right what helps make the film a breath of fresh air to begin with. For one, the film is no longer about killing common rapists and thieves. Instead, Kersey is gunning to take down drug dealers and organized crime now. The filmmakers were wise to create a new plot that is far more engaging and less repetitive than the last film. Kersey waits around for an all out city war in Death Wish 3, making things quite a dull and drab affair. In this film however, Kersey is on a mission a la Death Wish 2, which makes things far more interesting. The film was also wise to steady and pace its action all throughout the film.

Michael Winner is no longer carrying the franchise on his shoulders either. After three films, the director's chair is handed over to Cannon Production's J. Lee Thompson. Winner had a masterpiece on his hands with Death Wish, a good sequel with Death Wish 2, and a disappointing sequel with Death Wish 3. Therefore, it makes sense that Winner did not continue with the franchise. It was best that someone else stepped in to freshen things up. Thompson does a fine job, crafting a very right-winged actioner that sets out to attack the cocaine drug craze of the '80s.

"Bronson no like Pac-Man!"

The plot is as follows. Paul Kersey has returned to Los Angeles (Man, Kersey is just back and forth between L.A. and N.Y. in these movies). He has a new girlfriend (His fourth in the series! Wonder how long she'll live...) and his old architect job back as well. One day, his girlfriend's daughter turns up dead due to a drug overdose. Distraught, Kersey's girlfriend turns to her journalism and tries to find out what she can about the drug dealers of Los Angeles. 

Kersey on the either hand gets roped into things entirely differently. A man named Jonathan White approaches Kersey. He knows that Kersey was once the famous vigilante and how badly Kersey wants to take out the drug dealers in the city for killing his girlfriend's daughter. White wishes to provide Kersey with weapons to take out the dealers and information on their whereabouts. In exchange for eliminating crime, White won't tell the police about Kersey's whereabouts and Kersey will get his revenge on the dealers as well. With everything set in place, Paul Kersey sets out to find and murder all of the men involved in drug trafficking in the city. What follows is numerous great action scenes, a plot twist, and even a Danny Trejo appearance!

Just another action icon killing the ever famous Trejo.

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown starts off as a pretty serious drama. Kersey's girlfriend's daughter dies due to drugs. His girlfriend, Karen, than starts to realize that a lot of young kids are being killed by drugs as well. When I saw these scenes, I started to feel that the film was actually going to be a pretty serious action film. Granted, the action would be cheesy. But could this be the return to the aesthetics of the great original Death Wish?

Unfortunately, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown completely forgets about this. As soon as we see Karen take an interest in the drug world, her character completely vanishes! Seriously, I cannot believe this happened. All of the Death Wish films so far have always portrayed Kersey getting involved with a lovely woman. As he goes on his vigilante rampages, Kersey has to hide the truth from his loved ones. The films bounce back and forth between awesome shootouts and tense scenes of drama. This film doesn't have a single scene of this whatsoever. As soon as Paul Kersey meets Nathan White, the rest of the film's scene feature either the police, the mob, or Bronson. I think this is the film's biggest weakness.  I honestly cannot believe that the film abandons her character until the finale to turn her into a damsel in distress. It also makes no sense that they would introduce the storyline of her trying to investigate the criminal underworld and than completely discard it. The film truly only cared about Bronson killing bad guys.

I'm quite the everyday architect with this here assault rifle.

But as I said before, this film is great because it gives us Kersey on a mission. And when Kersey is on a mission, he is at his best as a character. There are quite a few scenes of Kersey either stalking bad guys, infiltrating their underground, going in with a disguise, and so on. It's quite fun to see Kersey get into so many different situations. He kills the baddies with a big variety of weapons, ranging from an exploding wine bottle, a simple pistol, a silenced MAC-10, and a grenade launching assault rifle. All of the action scenes are top notch too. They're even gorier than before and shot well too. There's no complaints at all about the framing either. The action scenes are steadily paced from start to finish as well. The film even concludes with a big shootout amongst all of the film's other action scenes. I'm really happy they still held out to pack a big finale. It makes the film far more exhilarating.

The flick also has a really memorable supporting cast. John P. Ryan is very creepy as Nathan White, a rich man who speaks with a chilling monotone voice. Kay Lenz is probably the cutest girlfriend that Bronson has in the entire series as well. I just don't understand how all of these young hot women are coming after the elder Bronson. Oh well. Perry Lopez is also hilariously over the top as Ed Zacharias, the film's main mobster villain. Cult icon Danny Trejo also has an appearance as one of Zacharias' henchmen. He receives one of the film's most memorable deaths as well, by an exploding wine bottle! The film's cops are all played nicely too. Everyone is far more memorable than any other character in the whole franchise (beside's Frank Ocha, he's the cop to beat).

"You've only seen Death Wish 3 times? Not enough!" BANG!

The film has a bland score unfortunately. It's probably bland because the score belongs to another Cannon film called Invasion U.S.A. I can't believe that a company in the freakin' 80's was recycling scores. I understand old Universal monster films doing it, but this is ridiculous. None of the music matches any of the moments in the film unfortunately. I'm a big score hound, so to see this film suffer from a bad score is quite a low blow to the film. Death Wish 1-3 had such memorable scores. This one, not so much. I also love how '80's this film is. Several scenes take place in video arcades, a disco roller rink, and even a V/H/S store. Even the title is totally '80's. This isn't just Death Wish 4, oh no. Bronson is cracking down on bad guys ladies and gentlemen! Therefore, the film's title wants to remind you of that. In all honesty, this is my favorite title of the series, the added "The Crackdown" line oozes with badassery.

The money shot.

Rating: 7/10 - The fourth Death Wish is a solid actioner with lots of action, a decent story, and memorable supporting characters as well. It's no masterpiece, but after four films in, this is about as good as it gets.

The Extras:

Best Kill: 

No other kill in the film matches up to the absurdity of the final kill in the film. Let's just say that it is quite the "explosive" finish.

Best Action Scene: 

I'm going to give it to the set up scene where Bronson tricks the two rival mob gangs into an all out shootout. My favorite moment is when one of the guys pulls out two revolvers and blasts some dude in the face. The guy spins around and goes head first into a car window! This scene also features the image of Charles Bronson walking with a rifle resting on his shoulder. It's just freakin' epic. One of the best Bronson images hands down.

Best Line/Exchange: 

Kersey gets caught in the kitchen of one of the gang's top assassins. When the man asks Kersey what he is doing in his kitchen, Kersey replies, "I was making a sandwhich." He than slams the oven door onto the man's hand! Hilarious!

Also Check Out: 

Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994) - After this film, things only go down hill for Death Wish yet again. After six years, the fifth and final film in the franchise would be released. However, I think that if you have made it all the way up to Death Wish 4 for goodness sakes, you have to finish the series.

Invasion U.S.A. (1985) - If you enjoyed the music from this film well than you'll love the soundtrack to Invasion U.S.A. Why is that you say? Because it's the same exact film score that's why! Both made by Cannon, the films' scores demonstrates just how low budget a company Cannon really was. The film is also a cheesy '80s actioner that is not worth watching for more than its awesome action scenes, great one liners, and Chuck freakin' Norris.

The Dead Pool (1987) - While my least favorite Dirty Harry film, the final Dirty Harry film came out the same time as Death Wish 4. If you need another '80s actioner starring an aging action icon, The Dead Pool is the film for you.