'Death Sentence' ... with a side of Bacon!

Death Sentence (2007)

Director
James Wan

Writer
Ian Jeffers (screenplay)
Brian Garfield (novel)

Cast
Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund, Kelly Preston and John Goodman

It's a revenge movie with lots of action and violence with Kevin Bacon... who wouldn't want to see this? James Wan isn't that bad of a director and at least he's had the integrity to try and break away from the Saw series where he got his start (although his other film, Dead Silence, was weak.) That's another thing that bugs me; they should really hire someone to come up with the titles of their films. Dead Silence and Death Sentence... two of the most generic titles for any film I've ever heard. So forgettable that on both occasions when I mentioned to someone that I rented it they reply "What's that?" I proceed to explain and mid-way through they go "Oooooohhhh..."

Kevin Bacon is a straight-laced family man whose life changes after witnessing the execution of his son in a seedy gas station by a gang member. When he seeks his own justice he ignites a chain of events that will create utter chaos... and people shoot stuff up real good.

After watching the first fifteen minutes of this movie I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep watching it. I was worried that the amount of cheese would send my eye balls into a permanent rolling motion. The choice of music was laughably bad, the dialogue was unconvincing, extremely cliche'd reactions and the relationships seemed way too forced and artificial. Kevin Bacon takes a knife with him to confront a gang member and when all is said and done the gang member is stabbed with the knife and is dead as shit but Bacon reacts like he didn't mean for it to happen.

The visual are pretty nice though as well as some of the cinemaphotography. There is an amazing continuous tracking shot during a chase sequence in a parking garage as well as some pretty intense scenes involving gunplay and more chasing.

I assume the gang members are ninjas since they quietly dispose of some cops guarding Bacon's house... only to leave one of them leaning on the car horn ('DOH!) and apparently suck at execution style murders since Bacon gets one last chance to fuck'em up for the third act. Then we go back to the sympathetic scenes in which they slap on all the sap as thick as they can. I don't really care anymore at this point as the action scenes can be pretty bad-ass.

After a few preposterous twists we get homage after homage of the far, far, far superior Taxi Driver this includes head shaving, hand exploding and gun shot to the side of the neck. If that's not enough they believe we, the audience, are too dumb to figure out "he's become one of them" as if I weren't bashed over the head with that enough.

If you don't mind some extra cheese with you run-of-the-mill revenge flick, by all means, give it a rent or download. On the other hand it's definitely not required viewing as there are better choices out there unless you're a Baconite, Baconohilic or have a case of Bacon-fever...

4.0/10