She Likes to Watch

The same director who smeared us with blood in the “Saw” series now provides us this year with another display of carnage. “Death Sentence,” directed by James Wan (the movie is based on a novel by Brian Garfield, the author of “Death Wish”), is a pathetic attempt to show the agony of a family man with a nice suit when he’s thrust into a gang underworld.

Kevin Bacon — playing Nick, the unfortunate white-collar executive — loses it after a loved one is killed in a gang initiation ritual. After his first taste of brain-rattling revenge by way of a sloppy premeditated murder, Nick turns bloodthirsty for kids in hoodies. He not only turns wacko but seems to get more emotional every time he realizes it. Through his many desperate attempts to get back at the gang, Bacon’s character demonstrates repeatedly what a bad action scene really looks like. A friend of mine at the screening actually yawned at one of these scenes and said, “This movie’s really annoying.” He thought the ideas presented by James Wan were banal and had no impact on him whatsoever, which I thought was ironic considering the intentions a director would likely have while putting together such a storyline. I doubt that “boring” was the reaction Wan was striving for.

During certain scenes in the movie the gang-related action would cool down, and the camera would fixate on Nick having some time alone, leaving the audience literally face-to-face with an insane man — still in his nice suit — crying for minutes at a time. This, as my companion complained, quickly became irritating and annoying. This may have been an attempt to garner sympathy for this man, but while the cause of the character’s grief and instability is understandable, the way the movie shows how he deals with it through these close-up scenes is asking for ridicule.
Don’t waste your money.

— Anya Rossa-Quade

Anya Rossa-Quade, a junior at Arroyo Grande High School, loves to write and watch films with her friends.