DEATH KISS (2018) ***

Remember in the ‘70s after Bruce Lee died there were all those imitators like Bruce Li, Bruce Le, and Dragon Lee who helped keep the Kung Fu torch lit in his absence?  Those films were affectionately known by fans as Bruceploitation.  Death Kiss belatedly attempts to do the same thing for Charles Bronson movies.  If this is what we can expect from the genre, I for one welcome a wave of Bronsonploitation pictures.  

It stars a lookalike named Robert Kovacs (who is sometimes billed as “Robert Bronzi”) who is a spitting image of the man himself.  Sure, sometimes the light will hit him the wrong way and the illusion will be shattered, but for all intents and purposes, this guy is the second coming of Bronson.  He has the same sad, saggy eyes, a similar quiet intensity, and most of all, the mustache.  The only thing Kovacs doesn’t possess is the Bronson voice.  Instead, he’s been dubbed by a guy who just sounds like… a guy.  That doesn’t ruin the illusion too much.  In fact, the bad dubbing sort of adds to the bizarreness of it all; almost as if you’re watching a Spaghetti Western… or a Bruceploitation flick.

Going in, I wasn’t sure how all this would pay off.  Would it be like a Machete-style grindhouse bonanza, or would it be an out-and-out parody?  What’s surprising is that writer/director Rene Perez has made an honest to goodness late-era Bronson movie.  It’s over the top, mean-spirited, and gloriously violent.  In short, it feels like a lost late-eighties gem rescued from the Golan-Globus vaults.  

What I liked about Death Kiss was that it was just a sliver classier than it needed to be.  I liked how Perez allowed the plot to unfold slowly.  He keeps Kovacs’ motivations and relationships to the other characters deliberately vague and when it finally comes together in the end, it’s surprisingly more effective than you’d expect.

The plot has Kovacs going around and blowing away scumbag drug dealers.  When he isn’t gunning down bad guys, he’s leaving wads of cash in the mailbox of a single mother (Eva Hamilton).  Meanwhile, a right-wing radio show host (Daniel Baldwin) spouts out a lot of pro-vigilante rhetoric advocating the open execution of sex traffickers and drug dealers.  If that sounds a little disjointed, don’t worry because it all comes together at the end.

Were the Baldwin scenes really necessary?  Probably not, especially when it veers into some red state territory.  Still, it has an okay payoff that leads to the set-up for a sequel.  

One distracting thing is that Perez color-corrected the hell out of this thing, almost to the point of making some of the characters seem blue-skinned.  The good news is he doesn’t hold back on the red stuff.  Nearly every gunshot contains an exaggerated amount of blood (CGI and otherwise), which makes the kills wholly satisfying.  You also have to give credit to him for setting the finale in cold temperatures, which gives Kovacs an excuse to wear a black beanie just like the one Bronson wore in Death Wish 2.

Kovacs does a fine job in the lead.  By that, I mean he looks just like Charles Bronson.  Bronson didn’t do much other than look like Charles Bronson either, so he comes by it honestly.  

I was surprised how much I liked Richard (Three O’Clock High) Tyson as the villain.  At first glance, he just looks like a Metallica roadie, with his long hair and backwards baseball cap.  However, he has an odd presence and some of his offbeat line readings might remind you of Michael Parks in Death Wish 5, and if you know my love for Michael Parks’ performance in Death Wish 5, you know I mean that with the highest respect.

Death Kiss is exactly the movie you think it is.  Nothing more, nothing less.  While I wish Perez shot some of the action more efficiently (although I dug the scene where Kovacs used a car door as a shield), he delivered what he set out to do.  He did such a fine job that I hope he has more Bronson-themed pictures in the works with Kovacs.  

Naturally, Kovacs gets the best line of the movie.  When he approaches a couple of drug dealers, they ask him how much he’s got.  He replies, “Six”.

“Hundred?”

“Bullets!”