Death Sentence (DVD, 2009, Rated & Unrated Footage)

Thirty-Three Years Ago, Charles Bronson made 'Violent Revenge' fashionable; taking to the streets of New York to avenge a horrible crime in 'Death Wish'.
It is back to those 'Bad Old Ways/Days' with 'Death Sentence'. A tale based upon the novel written by Brian Garfield; (whose other novel inspired 'Death Wish'). Directed by 'Saw's' James Wan; starring Kevin Bacon as a suburban white-collar Dad pushed past the limits of reason in a taut, visceral, and unapologetic portrait of brutality. It is an ugly movie; (a compliment given that it has an ugly story to tell).
Wan effectively sketches in the Hume Family dynamic in an opening montage of home videos ending at New Year's in the Present Day. The biggest conflict in the household is the sibling rivalry between high school senior and hockey star Brendan (Stuart Lafferty) and 14-year-old, second-string soccer playing Lucas (Jordan Garrett).
A Risk Analyst Executive at an Insurance Firm, Nick (Bacon) has provided his boys and his wife Helen (Kelly Preston) with a comfortable life. All of that changes in an instant when Nick and Brendan stop for gas in a bad neighborhood one night and get caught in the middle of a gang initiation. Brendan dies.
For Nick, the idea that he failed as a father, that he could not protect his child, is almost as unbearable as the loss. Then he finds out that the killer would probably only serve a few years in Prison - max.
While he tells a co-worker dispassionately, sounding every inch the insurance man, "We compensate for our loss and move on," the reality is that he has become a man obsessed. He wants to get even and not just with the killer, but the killer's whole gang. What he sets in motion is something out of Shakespeare, as the gang itself is a family enterprise; lorded over ultimately by Crime Boss Bones Darley (John Goodman) and managed on the street by his eldest son Billy (Garrett Hedlund). And if Brendan was the natural born athlete in the Hume Family, Billy is the Natural Born Killer among the Darleys.
Wallis (Aisha Tyler), the Homicide Detective assigned to his case, warns Nick that if he seeks revenge, it cannot end well.
But that's kind of the point, isn't it?
He is "Everyman"; living through a Nightmare that could take place anywhere. While the film was shot in North Carolina, Wan takes great pains not to identify the location. Even license plates give no clue, just generic numbers with no state. There is a warning here; this is what happens to decent people when they stray too close to an urban milieu — it will reach out to harm you even if it has to track you into the haven of your suburban home.
It makes no concessions that good people live in even the worst neighborhoods and that bad people can live in good ones. The movie may be about revenge, but its true theme is paranoia.
Truly a tough story to view; with heartwrenching scenes to drench the violence in. Make some room 'Death Wish', this film is destined to sit aside you on the Classic Revenge Thriller Catharsis of the Everyman !!
Frankly, Bacon's Best-to-Date !!
5-Star Performances !!!!
** From the Makers of "SAW"; film-fans take close watch. In all films made by "SAW's" creators they slip in "Jigsaw". In "Dead Silence" (SEE MY REVIEW) the Jigsaw Puppet was in Mary Shaw's Lair as a doll against the wall; in "Death Sentence"; "Jigsaw" with the Red Circles Cheeks is Muraled on the Bridge where "Billy" (Garrett Hedlund) is selling drugs.
Hitchcock-Like Touch by Director James Wan !!