I watch CBS' 48 Hour Mystery, NBC's Dateline and ABC's Primetime: Crime and always wonder why aged parents do not seek a more satisfying solution when the lousy spouse kills their son or daughter. Since personal revenge is very rare, the police must be doing a terrific job in promising that life in prison is more rewarding than a bloody death at the hands of a grieving parent.

Some killers spend decades not even getting charged with the crime. How do parents go on knowing their child's killer is free to enjoy life, even marrying again?

A terminally ill or old parent could do a lot of damage.

Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) agrees with me on retribution. (God is busy. Sometimes He needs help.) Nick and his wife Helen (Kelly Preston) have two sons, but dote on their eldest Brendan (Stuart Lafferty) who is promising athlete. Rather cruelly, they seem to ignore the quiet, more ordinary son Lucas (Jordan Garrett). After a sports game in an unfamiliar part of town, Nick and Brendan stop for gas and Brendan is viciously murdered by a gang member, Joe Darley (Matt O'Leary), during a gang initiation.

The D.A. lays out the reality of the law to Nick telling him he should agree to a plea deal of a few years in prison for Darley. There is a real possibility that a jury trial may set Darley free. Instead of naming Darley as his son's killer, Nick refuses to identify him. Darley walks, but Nick goes after him. In a violent struggle, Nick stabs Darley to death. Instead of telling bereaved Helen, Nick keeps the street justice to himself.

The gang's leader, and Joe's brother, Billy (Garrett Hedlund), incites his gang to avenge the death.

I saw "Death Sentence" immediately after Rob Zombie's "Halloween" (which I liked) but the brutality and tension that "Death Sentence's" director, James Wan, creates is more stressful than Zombie's big, lumbering mute Mike Meyers. As soon as I realized that no one was going to fight Mike – but just cry and scream - I lost interest in his killing spree.

In Death Sentence, Nick is up against a nasty gang of vicious killers. Nick, feeling guilt over his role in his son's death, and hell-bent on avenging the crime, becomes unhinged. I completely understood his single-minded purpose. He killed the guy who murdered his son. He won! The gang easily finds Nick and a thrilling pursuit ensues through streets and a parking garage. With the death of another gang member, Darley bumps up the threat and goes after Nick's family.

As a well-to-do executive, Nick should have immediately brought his wife and son airline tickets, or, at the very least, a hotel room. Instead, Detective Wallis (Aisha Tyler), who is onto Nick, posts two do-nothing cops outside his house in a car.

After the gang settles the score at Nick's house, he goes on a rampage. But Nick needs guns. He finds gun dealer Bones Darley (John Goodman – doing a terrific cameo) and makes a big purchase. Bones calls Nick a "preferred customer" and gives him handbooks on how to operate the guns. And now the carnage escalates (leaving Mike Meyers decorating masks).

Director Wan puts technicalities and police procedures aside in favor of a heightened bloody display of non-stop violence.

Bacon throws himself into the role showing the fear and then shock of actually killing someone. When he shaves his head and puts away his business suit, we know there will be an uncompromising solution.

(We at zboneman.com are excited to welcome the prolific and multi-talented writer Victoria Alexander to our staff. Critic for http://www.filmsinreview.com/ and pundit and humorist responsible for the candid and fearlessly funny "The Devil's Hammer," her column appears every Monday on http://fromthebalcony.com. Start off your week with a good hard laugh. It's a thrill to have her on board. Victoria Alexander answers every email and can be contacted directly at .)