Makin' Bacon mad
"Death Sentence"
2½ stars
out of four
Opens today
Starring As
Kevin Bacon Nick Hume
Garrett Hedlund Billy Darely
Kelly Preston Helen Hume
Aisha Tyler Wallis
John Goodman Bones Darely
Written by Ian Jeffers; based on Brian Garfield's novel. Produced by Howard Baldwin, Karen Baldwin and Ashok Amritraj. Directed by James Wan. A 20th Century Fox release. Rated R (violence, language). Running time: 99 minutes.
"Death Sentence" chugs along as a formulaic vigilante thriller, until urban thugs try to off a seemingly mild-mannered risk assessment manager in a multi-tiered parking garage.
Suddenly, the movie takes off as if booster rockets kicked on and propelled the narrative into a higher orbit. The camera scurries across the parking lot, chasing the gang members chasing the man in the business suit.
It's a breathless, pulse-pounding foot chase captured by a racing wide-angle lens that pulls us into the action. The camera rises from one floor of the parking garage to the one above, then descends back again, generating suspense by showing us just how close the hunters come to their panicked prey.
"Death Sentence" has several moments of visual astonishment like this, directed with verve and power by James Wan. Yes, the same James Wan who gave us the hugely popular horror film "Saw." If Wan hadn't treated "Death Sentence" with the suspended reality of a horror film, he might have made a worthy successor to the blackly comic 1974 vigilante classic "Death Wish" with Charles Bronson.
The story begins with Kevin Bacon as risk assessment manager Nick Hume, loving dad to two sons, great hubby to Helen Hume (Kelly Preston) and ideal employee at his white-collar firm.
One dark night at a gas station, gangbangers (you know they're evil because they all smoke cigarettes) kill Nick's hockey star teenager as an initiation rite.
Nick declines to testify against the killer of his son for a puny plea bargain. The dad takes matters into his own hands, putting his family in jeopardy.
As pure action entertainment, "Death Sentence" is a stylish success. But in this era of "CSI" and other sophisticated crime shows, the avoidance of realistic detail hammers its credibility. How do Nick and the gang run through 50 gazillion floors of a parking garage and no security cameras catch them?
When the gang's leader, Billy (Garrett Hedlund), needs information on Nick, he picks up a newspaper and reads about how Nick's son was killed. Later, Billy apparently stops reading newspapers, otherwise he would have learned his attempt to kill Nick didn't work.
These admittedly are niggling criticisms, amongst many others, in a movie that wants to pump the adrenal glands more than it wants to tease the brain.
In addition to Wan's eye for pure visual caffeine, Bacon imbues his character with far more humanity and dimension than Bronson ever possessed.
No review of "Death Sentence" would be complete with paying tribute to John Goodman, whose cheerfully amoral arms/drug dealer is destined to be inducted into the hall of fame for the greatest character actors who ever gleefully stole an entire motion picture.
Goodman's sweaty face is adorned with taped-up eyeglasses that give him the appearance of an evil bug. When Nick pays $5,000 for $3,000 worth of guns, Goodman's entrepreneur says, with deadpan cool, "This makes you a preferred customer."
Aisha Tyler doesn't do as well as a police detective who not only acts stiff, but utters absurdly un-coplike dialogue. Like when she finds out that Billy's gang is after Nick.
"If you started a war, God help you!" she says.
As if the killing of Nick's son didn't do that already.