Gayle On Film: 'Red Sparrow' & 'Death Wish'
Red Sparrow: C+
Death Wish: C
In the original, it was Charles Bronson who played New York City architect-turned-vigilante after his wife and daughter were attacked in a home invasion. But the NYC of the '70s is not the NYC of the 2010s. So director Eli Roth has set this film in the tumultuous streets of Chicago, with Bruce Willis playing an ER surgeon in a hoodie dealing out his brand of justice after his wife is killed and daughter attacked in a home invasion. When this surgeon who regularly treats gunshot victims finally decides to pick up a gun himself, it strikes an odd note. And he becomes a pretty good shot a little too quickly. Roth has dispatched with the grittiness of the original and made a more generic revenge saga. Though it's not a horror film, you'll still get a scene that teeters close to grotesque.
