Murphy’s Law: Blu-Ray Review

In the year 1986, Charles Bronson took a break between shooting Death Wish 3 and Death Wish 4 to play Jack Murphy in Murphy’s Law. Joining him behind the camera was J. Lee Thompson, who also directed Bronson in a handful of other titles including 10 to Midnight and Death Wish 4: The Crackdown. While it was no secret that Bronson was growing a bit tired of constantly playing similar characters over-and-over again, he at least must have had a decent working relationship with Thompson to shoot six films with him within six years.

LAPD detective Jack Murphy (Bronson) is definitely not living his best life. He is not liked or respected by his fellow officers, his wife divorced him and became a stripper and he has developed a serious drinking problem. As bad as things were for Murphy, they are about to get a whole lot worse.

It turns an ex-convict Joan Freeman (Carrie Snodgress) holds a grudge against Murphy and a select group of others that were involved with putting her away. To make sure the detective pays for his involvement, she frames him for multiple murders and now he is on the run with foul-mouthed car thief Arabella McGee (Kathleen Wilhoite), who he happened to be shackled to in jail.  Now, the two are on the run and are being hunted by not only the psychotic Freeman, but also a crime boss and law enforcement. It is up to Jack to prove his innocence and also put a stop to Freeman since nobody seems to believe him.

Murphy’s Law is definitely a more restrained film than many of the Death Wish sequels, but it’s also not quite as fun. Still for fans of Bronson’s fun of films that he did for Cannon, it is still a worthy addition. Wilhoite brings a much needed burst of energy with her role and some of the insults her characters throws not only at Murphy but others are down-right hilarious. If name-calling was a sport, she could be a winner.  Kino Lorber has released a new Blu-ray which is good since the 2016 disk has been out-of-print for a while.

Special Features:

• Audio Commentary by Actress Kathleen Wilhoite and Film Historian Nick Redman
• Lyon`s Law: The Cannon Years – 2021 Interview with Actor Robert F. Lyons (19:24)
• 2 Radio Spots
• Theatrical Trailer
• Optional English Subtitles

By: Marc Ferman