Death Sentence

Plot synopsis:
Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) is a loving husband and father of two sons, Brendan and Luke. A Vice President for an insurance company, he is passionate about keeping the columns of his accounts balanced and doing everything in a proper order. After a hockey game, Nick and his oldest son Brendan are driving home and flash their headlights at two passing cars with their headlights off. They then make a quick stop at a gas station to get some fuel. While Brendan is getting a smoothie inside, the two cars they passed earlier, containing several street gang members about to rob the gas station, arrive. The station owner reaches for his gun, but is spotted by one of the gang members and shot to death. It is then revealed that a new gang member, named Joe, must prove himself to "become a man", so he slits Brendan's throat with a machete. Nick scrambles after the thugs as they run for their cars, and tackles Joe as he escapes out the door of the gas station. Nick pulls off Joe's mask, but the murderer escapes. Left behind by his gang, he is struck by a car in the middle of the street. Nick rushes Brendan to the hospital, but he dies.Nick soon learns from the District Attorney that if the case goes to court at all, Joe will only get a maximum of a few years in jail for his crime. Nick declines to identify Joe, forcing the D.A. to drop the case. Joe, now a free man, becomes the target of Nick's revenge. That night, Nick goes over to the apartment complex which he has tracked them down to, and attacks and stabs Joe to death.The gang, led by Joe's sadistic older brother Billy, wants revenge for the murder of one of their own. After ruling out other suspects, the gang begins to track Nick down. A few days later, Billy and his entire gang attempt to kill Nick outside his office in a brazen daylight attack on the street and a chase ensues. Nick is able to escape, killing a second gang member in the process during a fight atop the roof of a parking garage. The police figure out that Nick has started a war with the gang, but without proof, do not arrest him. When Billy calls Nick's house and threatens to kill his family, they are given police protection. But that very night, the two officers watching over the Humes family are killed, and the gang members make their way inside, where they shoot Nick, his wife Helen, and his younger son Luke.Nick survives to wake up in the hospital. He learns that Luke is also alive, although in a coma, but his wife has died. He pays a short visit to his son where he tells his comatose son that life does not add up in neat columns as he always thought it did. He tells Detective Wallis (Aisha Tyler) that "it was never going to balance." She replies, "What did you say?" "The equation," he says. "Sometimes it's just chaos." Under police protection, he escapes from the hospital out his son's hospital window.The next morning, Nick empties all of bank accounts for cash and asks Owen, one of his co-workers, to track down a phone number the gang called him from. At the Four Roses bar, Nick roughly persuades the bartender to provide him with one of the gang members' location and a place where he can buy guns. He pays a visit to Bones (John Goodman), a shady auto mechanic who maintains a black market gun shop. Using all his cash, Nick buys a .357 Magnum revolver, a Colt .45 semi-automatic pistol, and a double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun along with amuntion and instruction booklets. It is here that Bones reveals to Nick that he is Billy and Joe's father, but Bones lets Nick go for he thinks that Billy should reap his consequences for acting on his own without his father's permission.Preparing for battle on what may be a suicide mission, Nick roughly shaves his head and dons his son Brendan's black leather jacket. Nick tracks one of the gang members to his apartment, where he forces him to reveal where the rest of the gang is. He then coerces him into calling Billy, and then shoots him point-blank while Billy is listening.Meanwhile, Bones drives down to a local freeway underpass to warn Billy of Nick's plans, cursing him for his continued screw-ups, but Billy shoots and kills him. Billy then takes his father's car and heads back towards the gang's headquarters, "The Office;" an abandoned hospital which serves as the gang's hideout and place where they grow and manufacture drugs such as marijuana and crystal meth.Nick takes one of the gang members' cars and seeing a van parked outside their building, he rams it with the car he is driving, splitting the van in half and killing the gang member inside. Entering "The Office," he uses the shotgun to quickly kill another gang member and chases down a third. He shoots him in front of a window with his shotgun, and the man is blasted through the window. Two more gang members show up and chase Nick up a staircase. Nick wounds one from the floor above with his .45 pistol, and finishes him off with his shotgun.Billy arrives to find Nick is already there. He finds practically all of his gang dead (several members killed off-camera by Nick during the gun battle). Upstairs, Nick and another gang member exchange shotgun blasts through a wall, and the gang member dies after getting hit. Nick enters what appears to be a former church sanctuary, filled with blood-red light by the red stained glass. Billy appears and shoots Nick in the side, who returns fire and wounds Billy in the chest. Billy's right hand man, Bodie (Edi Gathegi), appears and shoots Nick through the neck from behind, and Nick whirls, killing him with a shot to the head. Billy and Neck exchange further shots until both run out of ammunition. They sit together, exhaunsted and bleeding, on a church pew. Billy tells Nick, "You look like one of us. Look what I made you." Unmoved, Nick produces the .357 revolver from his jacket and, cocking it, asks Billy, "Ready?" Billy sighs. Sometime later as dawn begins to break, Nick staggers from the building alone where it is assumed that he killed Billy.Nick returns home in the gang's Mustang, parking it on the front lawn of his house. Dragging his shot leg and gripping a bandanna to his wounded neck, with blood staining his mouth and chin, he turns on the TV to watch a video of a family celebration. The police arrive and the detective tells him that his son started moving, and that he'll probably make it through. Nick shows a sign of relief and looks back to the TV. It shows Luke, Helen, Nick and Brendan singing on the couch. Nick slumps over, bloody, his head shaved and scarred, and his eyes drop shut.

Tags: revenge, murder, violence, home movie

Review:
Kevin Bacon gives an excellent performance as a traumatised father who witnessed his son's murder and decides to punish the killers himself, rather than depend on the police.The action scenes are truly suspenseful and keep you on the edge of your seat, especially a foot-chase that culminates in a deadly game of hide-and-seek within a 5-storey parking garage.
I wasn't expecting much of Death Sentence as I didn't like Saw, filmed by the same director James Wan. However, I've witnessed a total control over film making through this "old fashion" yet original "revenge" movie.
Take the scene of the pursuit around 45 minutes of the film : the work of the camera, on sounds and the very ideas of the pursuit (when Kevin Bacon starts to jump over every cars to trigger the alarms) was both realistic and yet somehow out of time and space, and so it conveys the very idea of a pursuit : real and unreal because unusual.
Nick Hume & his son Brendan stop at a gas station one night and a violent turn of events transforms Nick into a maelstrom of fury...Asking the question of just what lengths we would go to to look after our families, Death Sentence is merely following on from the likes of Death Wish and Eye For An Eye. But here the violence is upped to such a gruesome standard, it creates maximum impact.
The family man and senior vice-president of the insurance company Starship Capital Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) lives a comfortable life with his wife Helen (Kelly Preston) and his sons Brendan (Stuart Lafferty) and Lucas (Jordan Garrett).
When Joe's brother Billy (Garrett Hedlund) is informed about the death of Joe, he summons his gang in a war against Nick with tragic consequences.Revenge is a theme that produces good movies, and "Death Sentence" is no exception, with a strong dramatic appeal of the price of admission of a youngster in a gang of criminals.
I loved it!One of the best films i've seen this year.It had everything you could want.It had drama,suspense,action,thrills and more.It was a fun and tense movie to watch.After the Hume family is introduced there is a tragic,senseless killing and the action starts and is non stop.It is typical of what is happening too often these days,where the criminal justice system is failing the victims of crime and favors the criminal who has all the rights.The movie was also emotional and moving and each family member grieved in their own way.
It is the kind of movie where you strongly root for the father who is about to avenge his favorite son and initiates his own version of justice against a gang of skinhead looking thugs but with a colored member who grew up with the 2 Darley brothers.And even though some parts were over the top and not always believable,it keeps you on the edge of your seat with excitement.You fully understand this grieving father's wrath and what drove him to the edge.I wonder though(had it been real)if the father would have reacted so strongly if it were his youngest son who was killed instead of golden boy!
Towards the end it got surprising and sad but I guess a necessary thing considering the war the father started.And then the story takes a very unexpected twist at the end but,but a satisfying way to end it.The whole movie was very well acted by everyone especially Kevin Bacon who did a lot of his own stunts.I think it was one of his best performances..
James Wan (Saw) brings the ultra-violence to this gritty story of a suburban father (Kevin Bacon) who discovers the consequences of revenge after his son is murdered.
The perpetrators of this senseless killing are a multi-ethnic (and highly visible) gang of drug dealers and cutthroats led by the psychotic Billy Darley (Garrett Hedlund); when the case is thrown out on a technicality, Bacon takes a page from Charles Bronson's book (no surprise, as this is based on author Brian Garfield's 1975 follow-up to Death Wish) and pursues a vigilante course to avenge his boy.
Death Sentence breaks no new ground in the action-thriller department, and its characters and dialog are nearly indistinguishable from any violent crime movie of the last few decades (in its weakest moments, it resembles grind house fare like The Exterminator); however, Bacon is excellent (as always) as the mild-mannered architect who discovers his inner killer the hard way, and Wan's knack for screen mayhem and unsettling atmosphere are well used here.
The DVD includes both the theatrical version and an unrated cut (which offers 10 additional minutes), as well as two making-of features that originally aired on the Fox Movie Channel, and several websites that focus on director Wan, his cast, and the film's elaborate stunts and fight scenes..
DEATH SENTENCE is a tough movie to watch, not because it is a poorly made film, but because of the degree of violence that, once started, is mayhem on a roller coaster ride.
James Wan, of the 'Saw' movies fame, directs with a keen eye for breathless action sequences and almost intolerable suspense timing that makes the film fly through the 111 minutes of the Unrated version.During the opening credits we are introduced to the perfect family via home movies and domestic scenes: Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) is the devoted father, Helen (Kelly Preston) his bright and loving wife, Brendan (Stuart Lafferty) is the golden boy son with all the soccer laurels, and Lucas (Jordan Garrett) the younger 'also ran' son.
The glitch in this family's happiness happens one night when, out of gas while driving home from a soccer game, Nick stops at a gas station and while Brendan is in the convenience store a gang comes in and murders the store owner and Brendan: the reason for the killing is not robbery but an initiation rite into a gang accomplished by young Joe Darley (Matt O'Leary) and the demand of his older brother Billy (Garrett Hedlund, in a very out of character role from his usual 'Troy', 'Friday Night Lights', 'Eragon', 'Georgia Rule' persona).
Kevin bacon is an absolute legend , the acting by all was nothing short of perfect , directing ,editing and script top class , what else can i say only if you watch only one movie this year watch this one , it has a great start middle and end unlike other movies i've watched such as the massivley overrated NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN , witch besides having a great start ends up with you wondering if you'd have been better off turning it off after an hour and 10 minutes.
"Death Sentence" is perhaps my revenge/drama film of the year director James Wan delivers a masterpiece without question and Kevin Bacon performs a perfect 10 in his role as "Nick Hume" in which it seemed like he was born to play.From the acting, the directing, the script, the action everything is well done and top notch here and it truly feels like a gritty old school action film everything is great about "Death Sentence" if you like action/revenge films then this is for you without question.
I would love to see Kevin Bacon in more action films like this.And the main thing that really drove me into this film was the music, the music by Charlie Clouser truly captivates you and comes threw the camera and gets your attention and makes you feel "Nick Hume's" pain and you want him to succeed in what he is doing and that is revenge big revenge.10/10.
Everybody dies, nobody cares.Everything about the movie has a 'join the dots' feel, it's a cookie-cutter revenge flick that fails to generate any tension and few thrills.Kevin Bacon and John Goodman should have saved a couple of bullets for their agents.Hopefully a career low for two of Hollywoods most watchable character actors.Avoid at all costs..
Saw 1 was the best because we didn't know what to expect and a lot of people say the first movie is always the best.Overall i'd recommend this film to anyone who likes Kevin bacon and Saw 1,2,3,4.
U really feel the hatred he feels for the gangs The story is unoriginal however its done brilliantly, the punisher comes into mind but what death sentence wins for mainly is REALISM, and because bacon is a normal man, it makes you feel that this kinda thing could happen to you.
The law fails him and the movie does an excellent job in boiling your rage for the system and gang members.very well filmed, AKA the chase in the car park was all done in one shot, IMO its one of the most intense moments I've ever seen.The violence is pretty high and brutal which is another thing I love.
Kevin Bacon's transformation from family guy into sardonic vigilante skinhead is unsettling like few things I've ever seen before and the actual acts of retribution are vile and relentless beyond comparison.
I realize that not everyone thinks this film is as great as I do but it truly will be a movie that I will love forever.Death Sentence definitely has the feel of a James Wan flick.
Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund, Kelly Preston, and other talented actors star in this very intense movie based on Brian Garfield's novel.Bacon plays Nick Hume, a mild-mannered businessman who has a loving family.
To put it simply : Death Sentence = bad movie.Over the top and unbelievable , particularly the final scenes , and a lousy attempt at portraying how tragic and frightening todays culture can be.Now I have no objection to big budget , over the top movies , as long as they don't try and tag along some sob story to try and get the emotions of the audience running and maybe cause a few tears to be shed.I really enjoyed Die Hard 4 , it was ridiculously over the top at times , but it was completely shameless about it : you got what you paid for.Death Sentence , however is meant to be a modern harrowing insight into suburbia , but it loses any credibility with its absurd action scenes , and the emotional moments in the movie are both laughable and extremely cringe-worthy.Myslef and 3 friends went to the cinema with the intention of seeing Superbad , but there were no preview showings , so we went to this muck instead , and after the movie we all agreed that the movie we had seen was indeed "super bad"..
Luckily, there is plenty of action and enough righteous self-indignation opportunities to keep your mind off all of that boring plot and detail stuff.Kevin Bacon is Nick Hume, a stable, loving (perfect and boring - haven't I see this guy in about 3,000 movies before?) family man, whose oldest, and favorite son, Brendan (Lafferty) is senselessly murdered and the broken down justice system is unable to do more than put his worthless killer away for a few years.
Hedlund plays the requisite leader of a gang of non-thinking street toughs, while John Goodman's acid tongued hard ass, 'Bones', is the only interesting character in the whole movie.It's not great, but then again neither were most of the Death Wish movies (though number one was better than this).
i thought that this movie was pretty darn good actually,, Kevin turns in a heck of a performance as Nick Hume a businessman, whose son get's killed in a gang iniation hold up at a convenience store.
why you ask,, so he can exact his own sweet dish of revenge, he starts out by stalking down a couple of the gang members,, first the one who actually killed his son,, then he is stalked in the middle of a busy st, and kills one guy,, then all of a sudden the war is on,, John Goodman is way out of character,, but enjoyable as Billy Darling's dad a big time gun dealer,, excellent movie,, excellent directing and cast,,.
But a movie most of the time can't deliver both , without failing somewhere.That where death sentence tried .But it's was the most plausible try i have seen thus far.The police part and our hero skill being the *surreal part* .But if tomorrow your family was killed .You have that feeling that if you went completely mad.That could pretty much be like this and you would feel like our hero.LIke .
The story its about Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon), a mild-mannered executive with a perfect life, until one gruesome night he witnesses something that changes him forever and eventually comes to the disturbing conclusion that no length is too great when protecting his family, is kinda predictable but also interesting.
The cast is particularly good, Kevin Bacon delivers a powerful performance, John Goodman with another excellent acting job, Kelly Preston has a good supporting role and Garrett Hedlund was wonderful as Billy Darley.
Kevin Bacon did it again in this movie by showing his superb talent and versatility playing the role of Nick Hume a professional business man who turns vigilante after his sons murder.
Justice has been served in his eyes- but the gang won't take one of their own being killed lying down, and in his moment's haste, Nick has now placed himself and his family in serious danger.The most well-known film James Wan had directed prior to this was the grisly horror Saw. But rather than a gory slasher film, here he has a juicier, stronger plot to sink his teeth into, with a great narrative flow to it that keeps you hooked right to the end.One of the strongest things going for Death Sentence is Kevin Bacon's superb performance in the lead role, perfectly convincing as a man sheltered from violence and feelings of vengefulness all his life who is now trapped in a situation where he desperately struggles to manage these feelings with that of the respectable persona he's managed up till now, as well as beautifully conveying his struggle to deal with the consequences of his actions afterwards.The film manages a generally raw, intense feel through-out, with plenty of unflinchingly brutal, blood drenched violence and some hard hitting action, including a fantastic on foot chase sequence that begins on a city street, goes through some back alleys, a kitchen, into a parking lot and then onto the roof, which ends with a seat edge action sequence involving a car going over a roof.With all the flimsy 12A stuff being churned out nowadays, it's great to know that action films like Death Sentence are still around.
It's not something that looks and feels like a movie character that brushes things off, and his vulnerability brings us closer to his experience as he digs himself deeper into vigilante/revenge drama (even down to how he does a 'Taxi Driver' shaving-head bit, which is much messier and all the better for it).
But still, having a good ending is nice, but can't save a movie...well not for this bloke.I suppose Death Sentence is recommendable to people of action/revenge tales but overall it's kind of an average affair.
it was marvelous...the soundtrack was also amazing...it kinda'reminded me of fight club...everything...even the fact that Kevin got shot in the end in the neck...and he didn't die, not right on the spot anyway...he did what he had to do and after he heard that his son was doing better and managed to move his fingers, he died in peace watching the tape where he and his family were all together laughing...the song ,,alright'' by pilot speed was extraordinary and resembles the idea captured by placebo in the song ,,where is my mind''...i'd really give it a ten...great acting, great actors, scenes, script, lines like : ,,u ready?'' in the end when billy had to die...very to the point...by the way i never thought of john Goodman as a bad guy...however he fitted perfectly in the skin of a weapon dealer...IF YOU DIDN'T SEE IT, SEE IT...JUST LIKE THAT...i liked it more than Goodfelllas really, or even CASINO....
Naturally, I felt that if the critics hated a movie with Kevin Bacon in it, directed by James Wan, and had a Death Wish feel about it, then it MUST be a good movie for me.
Revenge movies like this don't need good acting to get in the way of an enjoyable action film, but it just so happens that Death Sentence delivers it well enough.Rent the DVD.
Things happen amongst the good guy and the cops (that don't ever really seem to catch up with these villains when really with the high profile they keep it would be quite easy) and amongst the bad guys, and on both ends, these things are stupid, because they are simply working from cell memory of other movies of its kind.In the end, Death Sentence, a film that, like many misfires, could've been so much better had it not contrived itself for the sake of the tried and true path, is designed for the same preteens and older kids that something like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning was designed for.
Lots of blood and gore for any violence junkie who looking for a fix, but then again if your the kind of moviegoer who's squeamish about things like that, then you better avoid Death Sentence.There are only two things wrong with this movie: Some of the performances by the other actors/actresses were a bit melodramatic and sometimes unbelievable, and the writing wasn't good at some points; things that would make you think: that would never happen in real life".
But it's a mess that I quite enjoyed, albeit for reasons most likely never intended by its makers.Bacon plays Nick Hume, loving husband and father of two boys, whose life is turned upside-down when his eldest son is murdered in front of his eyes by a gang-member.
Based on the Brian Garfield novel of the same name, it tells the story of Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon), a businessman who likes nothing more than going home each day to his loving wife (Kelly Preston) and two sons.
Some really good acting by the bad guys, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon.