Eli Roth, Joe Carnahan and Bruce Willis craft a solid ‘Death Wish’ remake

The new “Death Wish” will never have the social impact that the original “Death Wish” had in 1974, but this remake finds smart ways to update the story. For those too young to remember, it’s the tale of a pacifist, upper-middle class man who becomes a vigilante after his wife is murdered and his daughter is put into a coma.

Unless you lived through the 1970s, it’s hard to imagine the effect the original “Death Wish” had on audiences of its time. Coming as it did, just as crime was spiking in every major city, the movie’s depiction of one man fighting back had audiences cheering — not just at the end of the movie, but every time its star, Charles Bronson, shot some mugger on the street or thugs on the subway.