Death Wish made Charles Bronson a star.

Death Wish 5 gave him a check.

But were the movies any good?

This article originally appeared atDen of Geek UK.

New York, 1971.

Someone has slashed initiate the canvas roof of Brian Garfields convertible.

His immediate reaction was to think Ill kill that son of a bitch!

He just wrote about it.

A legend was born.

Brian Garfield was not happy.

It sucks, he moaned to his agent as they left the cinema.

Yeah, the agent replied.

But its gonna make a ton of money…

Spoiler alert: It did.

In the movie, Paul Benjamin becomes Paul Kersey, played by rugged 54-year-old screen legend Charles Bronson.

Since Winner didnt believe anyone could buy Bronson as an accountant, the character is made an architect.

Its smarter than it looks.

Its a portrait of a system thats corrupt from top to bottom and back again.

Paul Kersey is played believably as a man who, after a huge shock, becomes gradually more psychotic.

Hes not just over the edge hes actuallyenjoyingit.

Death Wish, while rooted in exploitation cinema, remains a powerful piece.

The eerie groove of Herbie Hancocks score accentuates a mood of urban entropy that still unsettles.

It almost plays like a horror film, a creature feature with New York itself as the monster.

The fears of the middle class made flesh and concrete.

Bronson fights the monster one bullet and one dead perp at a time.

Unfortunately,Death Wish 2(finally released in 1982) suffers from many symptoms of sequel syndrome.

The story has some faint echoes ofDeath Sentencebut is mostly its own beast.

Characterization is thin on the ground here.

Paul is a cipher with a gun who exists solely to track down the perps who wronged him.

In the first film, the revenge feels more real.

Well, youre about to meet him being the most celebrated).

Its crass, like I say, but not all bad.

Bronson does the best he can with the material and its hard not to adore Jill Ireland.

The atmosphere is great too.

This, with its irresistible tagline of YOU ARE BRONSON!

It was a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the source material… Paul sort of helps and yet doesnt help.

Yet somehow Paul still manages to amass an army of local assistants to help him decimate the crooks.

Theres a total onscreen body count of 78 (with 52 of these attributed to Bronson himself).

Its one crazy picture.

Death Wish 3paints 80s New York as a surreal2000 AD-style wasteland where violence reigns supreme.

According to an interview in Paul Talbots superb bookBronsons Loose!

Bronson appears out nowhere, silently, dressed in black, gun in hand.

Who the fuck are you!?

shouts one of the perps.

Bronson replies, bluntly, Death and shoots all three.

He looks down at the last corpse and sees his own face.

Still, despite all this,The Crackdownis a solid enough little thriller.

It may not be the bestDeath Wishmovie but nor does it completely devalue the franchise.

Great crack pun in the title too.

I see what they did there.

Between the fourth and fifth entries, a lot changed for theDeath Wishpersonnel.

New recruit Allan Goldstein took the directors seat and wanted to bring the black humor back to the forefront.

I sure do miss the guy.