Death Sentence is a revenge thriller, with more than a slight resemblace to Michael Winner's Death Wish, (Apparently the novel was written as a sequel.) It stars Kevin Bacon as Nick Hume, a business executive and family man whose son is fatally wounded in a gangland initiation. Hume quickly loses any sense of reason and vows revenge on those responsible.

His first victim is the younger brother of the gang leader(Hedland). This sets in motion a chain of increasing violence from the gang towards his family, and ultimately tips him over the edge. He buys guns from a shady dealer (John Goodman), who is, coincidently, the father of the gang leader and aforesaid brother. The violence continues to escalate into a bloodbath at the gangs HQ. Bacons performance is as one would expect from such a fine actor. However I could not shake the feeling of the unlikeliness of it all.

It's thrilling enough in parts, but becomes predictable and feels a little contrived towards the end. Not a bad film, but probably because of the source material, is less inventive than it could have been.