Death Sentence
“Death Sentence” is a pure action thriller and does a good job keeping viewers on their toes.
Review by Sirus

“Death Sentence” is director James Wan’s third directed movie to receive a wide release. Unlike “Saw” and “Dead Silence” before it, “Death Sentence” is more of a revenge thriller than a horror movie. The story in “Death Sentence” centers around a successful businessman named Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) as he struggles to come to figure out how to handle the death of his oldest son at the hands of some gangsters. Nick is forced to watch in horror as a group of thugs decides to rob a gas station convenience store. During the robbery, one of the younger thugs in the group is told that as part of his initiation into the gang he has to kill Nick’s son. Nick catches a glimpse of the gangster’s face as he hurries to escape the scene. When the case goes to trial, Nick decides that rather than letting the thug off with a plea of 4 years, he is going to take the law into his own hands. His decision to kill the young man sets off a chain of events that puts his family in harms way as the rest of the gang reacts with their own flavor of revenge.

Kevin Bacon does a great job as both the grieving father and the man bent on revenge. The movie is quite long and as such has a seemingly long buildup for the first half towards the conclusion. The first half has its moments but the real fun comes from the ultra violent climax. The action is quite intense and has a fitting level of gore to go with it. The violence never seems excessive for the context in which it is used. The music in the movie is solid but ultimately forgettable. “Death Sentence” is a pure action thriller and does a good job keeping viewers on their toes until the open-ended conclusion. The characters do a good job of portraying an emotional complexity making the motivations of both sides understandable. With the glut of action movies coming out as summer ends it’s easy to skip over movies like “Death Sentence”. Anyone who has seen all the other action movies already should give “Death Sentence” a chance.

Final Score: 3.5/5