Death Sentence (2007) * 1/2

Directed by:  James Wan

Starring:  Kevin Bacon, Kelly Preston, John Goodman, Aisha Tyler, Garrett Hedlund, Matthew O'Leary, Stuart Lafferty

I wish Death Sentence delved deeper into the mindset of Nick Hume (Bacon), a well-off insurance executive whose life changes forever after his son is brutally slain by vicious thugs.    The killing was part of a gang initiation and Nick's son Brendan (Lafferty) was in the wrong place at the wrong time.    Nick witnesses the killing, but is unable to stop it.   

Sadly, Death Sentence is only interested in being a blood-soaked revenge fantasy.    It is a sad, dark, depressing film.    Body parts are blown off and others die in increasingly horrible ways.     There is no relief or insight.    It is all gloom.    The odd part is the final disposition of the main villain is kept off screen.     Did Death Sentence suddenly decide that showing the villain get his head blown off would be too gratuitous?     I suppose I will never know the answer to that question.

Death Sentence never convincingly traces Nick's path from grief-stricken father to a vigilante not a thousand miles removed from Charles Bronson.    The killer is caught, but the DA flippantly tells Nick that he would only be able to put him in jail for a few years.    "You stopped at the only gas station in America that didn't have a security camera,"  he tells Nick.    Nick recants his testimony that he was able to ID the killer and decides to take the law into his own hands.    He roots around his garage and finds a knife that would make Crocodile Dundee proud to begin his mission. 

Nick fails to realize that his killing of the punk would lead to an all-out war against the gang the kid belonged to.    He is identified quickly and soon enough he is being chased through a parking garage by tattooed creeps with automatic weapons.    The gang is led by Billy Darley (Hedlund), whose tattooed neck and trimmed goatee guarantee that he would not be able to find suitable employment in the private sector.    Darley is irredeemably hateful and cruel.     He and his crew are without a human bone in their bodies.    They are destined to be targets for Nick.  

Nick transforms from mild-mannered executive to an indestructible Rambo in the blink of an eye.    He can outrun the thugs and defeat them in hand-to-hand combat as if he were channeling James Bond.    Without any evidence that he has ever even held a gun, Nick can suddenly fire at the baddies with accuracy that would make a sniper envious.    Oh, and he survives bullets that would kill an ordinary man and falls from great heights without breaking any bones.    He is no longer Nick Hume; he is The Terminator.   

There is no point in discussing the film's performances or script.    The goal of Death Sentence is established early.    I will say John Goodman's turn as an uber-creepy arms dealer/father of Billy Darley is unique, but we don't see enough of him.    It is not clear why he decides to let Nick go at a crucial point in the movie.    Were more scenes with Goodman edited out?    Did director Wan decide there would be too much dialogue in between the bloodbaths to leave Goodman in the film more?  

Where are the cops in all of this, you ask?   A sympathetic detective (Tyler) issues hollow warnings to Nick about taking the law into his own hands, but generally stays on the sidelines to let Nick do his thing, even after two cops watching Nick's house have their throats slashed.     It is inconceivable that the police would not take the lead and go after the gang themselves, but Death Sentence is first and foremost a fantasy of one man taking on his son's killers alone.    The war escalates and more members of Nick's family are affected, but what happens to them becomes an afterthought that is explained away by throwaway dialogue at the end.

Death Sentence is likely to appeal to audiences that love their action bloody and brutal.    It is shown without any point of view or insight into human nature.    We get the sense that Nick always had it in him to become Rambo, but just needed a terrible thing like the murder of his son to bring it out.    We do not feel Nick's pain and how it transforms him.    His transformation happens quicker than you can say "Death Wish".     The film will likely act as propaganda for those who think everyone should be armed with guns because that would somehow reduce gun violence.    These people can not watch Death Sentence and agree this would be the case.