IESB Presents - FilmGeekz.com - Death Sentence: Unrated

Death Sentence: Unrated - Review

DVD Reviews

Studio: Fox Atomic
Genre: Thriller • Action
Street Date: January 8, 2008
Director: James Wan
Number of Discs: 1
MPAA Rating: R • Unrated
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund, John Goodman, Kelly Preston, Matt O'Leary
Running Time: 110 minutes
Format: Standard

DVD Specs: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen (2.35:1), NTSC
Special Features: Fox Movie Channel Presents features: Making A Scene
Life After Film School with Kevin Bacon, Webisodes:
Director James Wan, Transforming Nick Hume, The Cars
Creating the Character Bill Darley, James Wan: From Horror to Action, Making the Garage Sequence, Fight Choreography & Stunts, Shooting the Chase
Designing the Look, The Car Drop
Version: Single Disc
Store Exclusives: N/A
Review: Unrated Cut Review:
Do you mind if I dig up some of my fun Comic-con 2007 memories for a moment?....No? Great! I knew you'd allow me to let me run amok for a moment or three. It's how I roll and hopefully what you like best about me (despite my really sexy eyes)..if you do mind my rambling feel free to skip ahead to quick spin though.

Comic-con is a just sheer chaos for fans attending, so much to see, so much to do, not enough time in the day to do it. For a writer working at Comic-con it's 3,720 times worse. Oh you might think we've got it made in the shade and its all geeky glitz and glam...and some of it is but mostly its a ton of running around trying to cover as much as possible while still trying to squeeze in some of the experience on a "normal" level and still manage to find time to grab some food.

Which is part of what ties into this yarn. My Saturday morning at Comic-con started with a reshuffling of schedules, I had been prepared for a late wake up call and some easy breezy TV panels watching some upcoming pilots while I recovered from the hangover I most certainly earned. I got a call telling me to pack my gear and head on over to breakfast with Kevin Bacon (I think they actually called it Kevin Bacon and Eggs). After weighing my fear of stepping into this with zero prep time and a hangover against the fact that I was ready for some good fuel to start my busy day...my stomach won out over my common sense and off I went to the Omni.

To answer your first question: No I did not get to eat or even see Kevin Bacon, but Garrett Hedlund came on by to chat with our table for awhile. It's a little strange to be stuffing your face with a cheese omlett while the kid from Troy is sitting there..but hey this was probably going to be the last food I got into my belly while the sun was still out....so chow on! I waited patiently as the one on one interviews began as I was there to chat with James Wan as well as fuel up.

After a time I was told due to a schedule glitch I wouldn't be getting my interview, to be honest I took in stride and bailed to head over to the convention center....now keep in mind I'm carrying a laptop and various other gear...and I'm full of eggs and bacon. not long after I got settled into one of the panels my phone starts blowing up....yup...I've got to do my own version of Run Fat Boy Run back to the Omni for the now back on interview.

Needless to say I arrived out of breath and sweating to find out that I also had an interview with Garrett Hedlund which was starting in 3 minutes....you can guess how well that went. Afterwards I got to finally sit down with James Wan, I wasn't really sure what to expect...here's the guy who started the whole Saw torture porn genre. I was picturing something like the goofnut from Grandma's Boy or someone that should have been in one of Mike Myers Sprocket skits. Oh sure I saw him at Breakfast but still....as it turns out James Wan is totally kick back and he's got this hyper active in a toy store additude. I began to think maybe there was another James Wan and worried I had all the wrong questions...this could NOT be the guy who created Saw, maybe I was on a hidden camera show and Ashton Kutcher was going to pop out. Needless to say James Wan is still by far the easiest interviews I've ever done and after all the glitches and bombing my interview with Garrett it was exactly what I needed to get my head back in the game for the long day ahead.

Quick Spin: Having been traveling when they screened Death Sentence I totally missed out on it the first time around. If you read the story above you can imagine by the end how I'd really need to see the film to put a cap on the story. Thankfully my care package from Fox arrived and I was able to finally see the end result.

Things kick off showing us just how normal Nick Hume's life is. He's a statistic of the all American family. All it takes to begin this Norman Rockwell to Charles Bronson turn is one simple act of fate; in this case just being in the wrong place at the wrong time which leads to the death of his oldest son.

Once Nick realizes that his son's killer is about to get off with not so much more than a slap on the wrist..the decent really begins and so does the hunting.

This is so much more than a simple revenge flick, it's about how violence begets violence and how Fathers relate to their Sons.. Once Nick gets his vengeance, he's thankful to have gotten through the experience without losing his life or getting caught. It won’t be long before he finds himself back in the crosshairs though as the rest of the killers gang turns up wanting their own vengeance. From there it becomes a story of escalating violence with plenty of collateral damage as Nick transforms from loving family man to ruthless angry thug. Kevin really has a great handle on this role, it doesn't take much effort on the viewers part to see how natural the transition is here. By the time he's fully in Bronson mode you understand what it took to get him there and you just want him to get out alive. While I've never thought of Garrett Hedlund as a dude that can play scary he certainly surprises here though, hell you can't even see him under all the grit and tats if you saw him on the street you'd avoid this scumbag (the character not the actor).

It'll be interesting to see what James does next, watching Saw, Dead Silence, and Death Sentence there's an evolution to his style that shows he's gearing up to tackle some other genre and hone his craft.

Get your side of Bacon and Bronson, check out Death Sentence.
Rating: 4 Stars

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