A few months back I started seeing things about a new film that looked like the return of Charles Bronson, but sadly he passed away in 2003 so unless this was some sort of long lost film that just wasn’t possible. Clearly the film titled Death Kiss was a new film since it features stars Daniel Baldwin, Richard Tyson, Eva Hamilton, Stormi Maya, Leia Perez, Reese Austyn, and Sam Story but its lead Robert Kovacs is a spitting image of Bronson and it is clear they are taking full advantage. Could this film offer up the same kind of revenger flick chaos he was known for or will it fail to hit its target?

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Death Kiss follows a vigilante with a mysterious past who goes to a crime-infested city and takes the law into his own hands, at the same time protecting a young mother and her child. I had the chance to check out the film this year at Texas Frightmare, but sadly had to miss it but I did get to meet its star Robert Kovacs who is a spitting image of the iconic Bronson. I honestly thought it would be a strange make-up job but after meeting him in person I was mesmerized by how exactly like Bronson he looked which was only made all the better by how nice a guy he was. Of course being a nice guy doesn’t make a movie good, but I was eager to see what this film had to offer if for no other reason to get to see if he could bring that same intense everyman toughness Bronson brought to the screen.

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Let’s be honest the entire real enticement to this film is Kovacs likeness. The film itself is actually not bad for being an independent with an unknown lead. The film clearly suffered more form actual story than it did from anything else. There was an idea that likely didn’t have enough substance to fill an entire feature length so the choice to bring in the DJ character played by Daniel Baldwin. Make no mistake the character does have a major point in the film, but as a whole felt more like filler. Richard Tyson brought his usual over the top persona to the mix making for a decent crazed bad guy despite the entire arc getting lost in itself more often than not.

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Anyone watching this film though likely could care less about the story or even the other actors. They are all in to see Kovacs in action and as a whole he delivers. He has very little dialogue and an often too calm demeanor to what is happening, but that pretty much captures the essence of a lot of Bronson roles. He speaks with his gun and there is plenty of bullet flying action, but just as much blood spewing violence that is sure to have any fan smiling from ear to ear. They went a bit overboard with the slow motion action at times and the score tended to drone on a bit too long at times, but for a smaller budget film like this I found it pretty fun. When you go into it just remember that this isn’t the big budget fare you are used to and as a whole isn’t an overly good movie, but it does offer up a grindhouse vibe that I love.

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See the sort of rebirth of a legend with Death Kiss available now on DVD from Uncork’d Entertainment.