Death Sentence (2007)

Perhaps the lesson here is that anyone can become an expert killer. Family man Kevin Bacon starts out fumbling his way through revenge-murder but by the end he seems pretty damn good at it. Fact is, you've seen this movie before, be it Death Wish or The Brave One, so your tolerance for this film mostly hinges on how much you're into justifiable homicide. To be fair, Bacon's bloodstained white collar persona has a decent evolution to it, and his opposition in the form of an unrecognizable Garrett Hedlund is appropriately slimey, though it's really John Goodman as the foulmouthed weapons-and-drugs dealer who leaves the biggest impression. The rest is a lot of white noise interspersed with the occasionally good-to-great scene, including an impressive and exhausting chase sequence. If nothing else it shows that original Saw director James Wan's filmcraft skills are improving. It's nothing special, but if you need a quick fix of violence then you could do much worse.

6 out of 10.