Death Sentence
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: August 31, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
10
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
VarietyJustin Chang
Well-made, often intensely gripping genre piece. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Wan's movie is very efficient. Bacon, skilled pro that he is, provides the character the movie needs, just as he has in such radically different films as "Where the Truth Lies," "The Woodsman" and "Mystic River." Read full review
63
Miami HeraldPeter Debruge
Death Sentence would be right at home as one half of "Grindhouse"'s B-movie double bill. Read full review
60
Film ThreatMichael Ferraro
The action sequences are still pretty imaginative, if not nonsensical. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The film has one thing going for it--it's certainly never boring. Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Death Sentence, directed by "Saw" co-creator James Wan, swings the pendulum too far. One day Nick is a mild-mannered nerd who spends his days making (and loving) risk assessments for his company; the next, he's Travis Bickle from 1976's "Taxi Driver." Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
Bears more than a slight connection to the landmark of the genre, 1974's "Death Wish," starring Charles Bronson. It is based on novelist Brian Garfield's sequel to his original book, though any resemblance is tenuous at best. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJan Stuart
While there is the requisite amount of shorn limbs and splashing blood one might expect from the director of "Saw," Wan should be saluted for putting the coup de grâce off-screen. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kamal AL-Solaylee
Sadly, Bacon is only intermittently convincing as a man hell-bent on revenge or a father tortured by what he has unleashed on his family. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMeredith Goldstein
The cynics will slap their foreheads, the squeamish will cover their eyes, but the revenge movie fanatics should be nice and satisfied after the whole ordeal. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Death Sentence's message - that vengeance is ultimately futile, spinning out a vicious circle of rage and hate - may be commendable, but there's nothing noteworthy about the way Wan, Bacon and their troops go about delivering it. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
It's a cartoon that thinks it isn't one. Read full review
40
The New York TimesMatt Zoller Seitz
Aside from a stunning three-minute tracking shot as the gang pursues Nick through a parking garage, and Mr. Bacon’s hauntingly pale, dark-eyed visage, Mr. Wan’s film is a tedious, pandering time-waster. Read full review
38
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Wan wants to have something both ways, and in the end, he gets almost nothing. As Clint Eastwood said in yet another genre picture: A man’s gotta know his limitations. Read full review
33
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie has nothing to offer except titillation. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyJim Ridley
The only things anyone’s likely to remember, besides Bacon’s crazy-eyes act, are John Goodman’s soon-to-be-legendary turn as a bilious bug-eyed gun dealer and a hellacious back-alley/parking-garage chase shot from a careening fender-level camera. Like much of the movie, it’s as hammily dynamic as it is impossible to swallow. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJoshua Katzman
This graphically violent film suffers from cursorily developed characters whose primary function is to advance the creaky plot. Read full review
25
USA TodayClaudia Puig
This film is so superficial and shifts so jarringly in tone that nothing feels authentic -- not Bacon's hard-working husband and father, nor his maniacal vengeance seeker. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
A very belated and very silly follow-up to "Death Wish." Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Bacon's performance in "Saw" creator James Wan's laughably extreme revenge thriller Death Sentence is six degrees of ham. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleSteve Winn
Almost everything about the movie lands with an emphatic, preordained thud. Read full review
25
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The film is preposterous on so many counts that it's hard to enumerate them. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The morality of revenge is barely at issue in a movie that pushes the plausibility of revenge right over a cliff. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
One well-staged sequence in a parking garage is the film's only memorable moment Read full review
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