Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987) Review

Verdict
3

Summary

Death Wish 4 is great fun with nothing remotely disturbing in it, except how badly some of the stunts are performed.

This series really is descending into parody at this stage; Paul Kersey is back and this time he’s blackmailed into killing lots of drugs dealers. It takes a lot of convincing: “I want you to kill all of these drug dealers!” Kersey: “Sure”.

Any attempt at social commentary has long since been forgotten and Kersey is now just a one man army; is this a bad thing? Nope. I can’t help it but I really enjoyed this movie in a so bad it’s awesome kinda way.

There’s a great shoot-out in an oil-field at one point where a guy gets shot, he then turns around and smashes his head through the window of a car in arguably the most unconvincing stunt of all time. There’s also the shoot-out in the Rollerblade place at the end where everyone keeps falling over as the shooting begins. I’m sure it isn’t MEANT to be funny, but it was just so ludicrous.

Where are the cops in these movies? Kersey is carrying around a canon that’s bigger than him and yet no SWAT team is chasing after him.

There are a few familiar faces in this movie including Danny Trejo and Skinner from The X-Files. You’ve also got that insane old guy (John P. Ryan) from Delta Force 2. He always seems to play crazy old men.

There is no screeching electric guitar soundtrack to this one (boo) but I’m pretty sure Jay Chattaway did the score as it sounds like Invasion USA and Red Scorpion.

Overall, Death Wish 4 is great fun with nothing remotely disturbing in it, except how badly some of the stunts are performed.