For the first hour, Death Sentence is a thoroughly gripping thriller, updating Brian Garfield's 1975 novel (the sequel to Death Wish) to present day America riddled with drugs and gun-related gang violence.

Director James Wan and screenwriter Ian Mackenzie Jeffers set a brisk pace, building to a frenetic running battle through the streets, which culminates in a tense game of cat-and-mouse in a multi-storey car park.

The climax to the foot chase is truly extraordinary.

Shot in a single take lasting more than three nerve-racking minutes, the camera sprints after the stricken hero as he tries to outpace the bad guys, seamlessly moving between floors before rising to the top storey where the hunt takes a dramatic twist.

And then, just as the film seems to be coasting along, Death Sentence runs out of momentum and plausibility.

With a slow motion, rainstorm sequence to wash away fond memories of the past hour, the central character succumbs to bloodlust and starts blitzing anything that moves.

As shotgun blasts sever digits and entire limbs, tension evaporates and the tug of war between good and evil degenerates into an unintentionally funny showdown in a makeshift chapel.

Lord have mercy.

The instigator of the carnage is insurance company executive Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon), whose family are the picture of middle-class, suburban perfection.

On the way home from a hockey game with son Brendan, Nick stops for petrol, while his son buys a drink. In an instant, balaclava-clad thugs burst into the station, killing the cashier and fatally injuring Brendan as part of a gang initiation test.

When the justice system fails Nick and his family, the normally demure businessman reluctantly takes matters into his own hands.

Violence begets violence, and sometimes even a simple, intelligent set-up begets an inelegant, dumb pay-off.