Messenger of Death

Directed by J. Lee Thompson, Messenger of Death follows a reporter (Charles Bronson’s Garret Smith) as he attempts to get to the bottom of a deadly feud between warring, ultra-religious brothers. Filmmaker Thompson, working from Paul Jarrico’s screenplay, delivers a meandering thriller that grows less and less interesting (and more and more tiresome) as it slowly progresses, which is a shame, ultimately, given that the picture, armed with a typically solid Bronson performance, kicks off with a compelling (and unexpectedly) bleak opening sequence – with the movie, beyond that point, seguing into an often impossibly dull narrative focused predominantly on Garret’s protracted, interminable investigation. And while Thompson has peppered the proceedings with a very small handful of engaging digressions, including (and especially) Garret’s confrontation with a sinister assassin within a bathroom, Messenger of Death does, for the most part, come off as a seriously subpar Bronson vehicle that remains perpetually unable to sustain the viewer’s interest and attention on a continuing basis.

*1/2 out of ****