Lamest of the series. Bronson is showing his age and the story is color by numbers. Boring story with very few deaths (and lets be honest, but the time we get to this one, it's the killings we want to see). It's still slightly better than Eli Roth's horrible remake of the first movie.

Funny how the fifth and final movie in the "Death Wish" movies turned out to actually be the best of them all. And it only took them 20 years to improve the formula. Odd, huh?Now, I have already mentioned that "Death Wish V: The Face of Death" is the best of the five movies, and that is attributed to the fact that it had the most mature and well-rounded of all five storylines told in the franchise.Funny how Paul Kersey loses someone he loves in every single movie, and yet he keeps going. Why not just isolate himself in the countryside? Bam, end of tragic losses and deaths.Well, I think that "Death Wish V: The Face of Death" as actually a nice way to tie up the franchise and leave it to rest. Wait, that's not true is it? Not with the 2018 remake with Bruce Willis hitting the cinema.Personally, I think that the "Death Wish" movies will always belong to Charles Bronson, because he embodied the Paul Kersey character and he was the face representing the franchise.If you enjoyed the previous four movies, then you definitely also will enjoy the fifth and final, yes final!, movie in the "Death Wish" franchise.

Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is in witness protection working as an architecture professor. He's dating New York fashion designer Olivia Regent (Lesley-Anne Down). The problem is that her gangster ex-husband Tommy O'Shea (Michael Parks) and father of her daughter Chelsea has pushed his way into her garment business. Tommy sends Flakes (Robert Joy) to attack her. Paul goes to DA Brian Hoyle (Saul Rubinek) for help. Police Lt. Vasquez has been trying to put away Tommy for 16 years. Tommy starts killing Olivia's workers who were cooperating with the police and the cops themselves. He kills Olivia and takes custody of Chelsea. Paul has no choice but to take on the mobster his way.The story is not bad. There are some very good actors. Michael Parks is always a good villain. However, the franchise is tired and old. The grittiness has been replaced with cheesiness. Trying to do high fashion looks silly. The biggest problem may be doing the Toronto for New York bit. It simply devalues the reality of this world. It's also a little repetitive for his girlfriends to always have problems. Charles Bronson does what he does best but there is nothing new left. Also the ending is abrupt as if they ran out of money.

Part V, everyone probably knows the drill by now. Paul Kersey has met yet another younger woman (is he honestly that irresistible?), gangsters attack her, Kersey's had enough, everybody dies. The later sequels really just connect the dots between the best points of their superior predecessors, but at least they still provide acceptable action scenes. This time around the kills are creative when you're an optimist, and far-fetched if you're me. A radio-controlled soccer ball that can light on fire? Poisoning someone's canolli? We've seen this guy use machine guns that were bigger than him, so it comes of as a bit tame. I would say this is a very tiny step up from "Death Wish 4: The Crackdown" though, not only because it has the cooler sounding subtitle but also because the villains are more interesting. Michael Parks is a very entertaining actor, he gives the movie that spark of life that Charles Bronson couldn't really deliver in the later sequels. Not that seeing Charles Bronson gunning down scum isn't infinitely rewatchable, but his heart doesn't really seem in it anymore here. "Death Wish V" is about as good as a fourth sequel to a movie that barely even needed one can be, it's entertaining without being anything special.