After three swings and a miss, then surely I was more than ready to give up on the "Death Wish" franchise. But I had all five movies readily available, so I decided to stick with them and watch them.It turns out that "Death Wish 4: The Crackdown" had a much better story than the previous 3. The reason for this was because the storyline dealt with the drug cartels, so it added a whole different layer and aspect to the movie.It was rather fun to see a young Danny Trejo in this movie. The doll of Trejo, during the explosion scene, was just hilariously bad.The scene where Paul Kersey (played by Charles Bronson) crashed the police car, the ramp behind the other car was so painfully visible that it was ridiculous. And I actually went back to watch that scene three times just for the sheer laughs of how bad it was.Of course Paul Kersey lost more people that he loved and cared about in this movie. Seems like he is being followed by some curse that claims everyone he becomes close to."Death Wish 4: The Crackdown" was actually the best of the four movies in the franchise thus far.

I happen to love all of the Death Wishes dearly, mostly 1-4. In this sequel Paul finds himself in a new relationship in a new city. (boy does he drift a lot) So his step daughter starts hanging out with a bad crowd, and dies from a drug overdose. Mr. Kersey, pretty much accepting vigilantism as a way of life at this point tries to find the source of the drugs and neutralize it and the movie follows that plot, and you also have the obligatory useless asshole cops who get on Paul's case about his past, etc. It's another satisfying installment of justice to this series. We all get the feeling of just wanting to rid all of the cartels and dealers, but like the previous two Death Wishe's there are some plot holes, but you have to overlook them to see the broader picture. Just put yourself in Kersey's shoes and you will enjoy the movie. I also was really happy at the fact that there was no rape scenes, those get tiring and annoying to see even though it is reality.

In terms of craft this is a major step up from part 3, but it's a lazy film from talented people that just seem to be going through the motions. I'm not expecting a masterpiece called Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, but franchise fatigue bogs this bore down. The over the top camp of part 3 has been toned down to near flat-line levels and the plot twists are either telegraphed a mile away or nonsense. Simply nothing is memorable. Cannon films was near bankrupt by the time part 4 went into production and reduced the budget from the already threadbare budgets of the previous films. The result is having the script limit the story to a few lame locations that they either got for cheap or probably knew the property owner - like the oil field. After a decade of being in low budget exploitation director's jail, this is a easy money grab and a lazy job from J. Lee Thompson.

Here's a far different Death Wish, to the former three. Yes, crack has claimed the life of another person, Bronson's close to, that being the daughter (Vacation's Barron) of his new girlfriend (Lenz). So Charlie goes undercover to bust the bastards, after being enlisted by a guy (John P Ryan) who lost his son to crack. Of course, much more realistic to bubblegum pic, number 3 (my favorite) this entry, sees a wearied Bronson, doing what he does best, playing Mr Cliché tough guy, where the movie really goes into the drug problem, but more so just has Charlie, kicking arse. He masquerades as a bartender to a playboy drug kingpin, who became his cop partner, in J Lee Thompson's next flick, Kinjite, where later Charlie is played for a sucker. Just watching the party scene, we can patently see, Charlie would rather be somewhere else, but if you're a desperate or more so is the case here, typecast actor, you have to take what you can get. Too this Death Wish has a nice twist near the end, I liked, something you never would of expected in this, though this film is far from the superior original. I think with watching this forth one, here's a good time for Charlie to hang up his boots and be done with this franchise, in what is an interesting and not badly made pic. Sadly it wasn't, with the desperate and final entry six years later, the sickest Death Wish yet. Death wish fans will still be content here, especially when Charlie brings out the big guns, reprising his role, as Mr Vigilante Paul Kersey, one of his greatest acting performances, ever.