This is where the Death Wish franchise fully sheds any appearance of issue-based social realism and embraces comic book craziness. Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey returns to New York only for a friend to immediately die in his arms, beginning a chain of events that climaxes with an all-out war between Kersey — along with his beleaguered neighbors — against a street gang that has turned a city block into a lawless hellhole where cops fear to tread. There are some interesting ideas broached in Death Wish 3 — including police unofficially endorsing Kersey's effective illegal methods — but some of the most provocative aspects seem to be unintentional or incidental. Of primary concern is Kersey's shrugging indifference to the collateral casualties that result from his resistance to the forces of crime. It would be fascinating to watch Kersey, Sweeney Todd-style, experience a loss of his own humanity and empathy as a price for vigilantism, but this rather seems like just an artifact of Bronson's limited acting-style, which consequently robs Death Wish 3 of any tension. He barely even flinches when yet another loved one dies in a sensational manner. As a ridiculous spectacle of 1980s carnage, Death Wish 3 is tough to beat; that it has the potential to be more than that but remains oblivious is disappointing.