Revenge has been a staple of the B-picture going back to the time when western double features would present the lawlessness of the Old West where the Gods of justice wouldn’t mind two men settling their differences in the middle of a dusty street. Death Wish may always be the staple to which modern justice seekers refer to when acknowledging the breakdown of a system in the midst of urban chaos. Now it’s 2007 and in just over a month we have been given our choice between a trio of revenge-themed pictures. One called Descent with Rosario Dawson seeking out her rapist only made it into a few theaters. Another won’t be opening for a few more weeks, also featuring a woman (Jodie Foster), in a more high-falutin’ take on the genre. Smackdab in the middle is Death Sentence, based on a novel by the original Death Wish author (in fact it’s a sequel to that book) and directed by James Wan who helped bring a different kind of poetic justice to the screen with the Saw series. Despite such a simple and overcooked premise for a film, this has more going for it than either of those other films; a solidly made thriller with a central performance from Kevin Bacon that is better than any of its kind.
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