OMG lol this 1984 ultra gritty ultra violent ultra sleazy Bronson Thriller is Fantastic!!! This is Charles Bronson at his absolute best!!! Yes this is just as good if not better than his excellent Death Wish films (Except part 1). The Evil That Men Do is a really gritty & grimy vigilante Thriller & it's very well made for a low budget 80's exploitation flick, it's directed by the excellent J Lee Thompson who has made lots of Bronson films so he knows exactly how to use Bronson better than any other director!!! Here Bronson plays Holland a retired Hitman/Assassin who lives a peaceful life now away from the evil cruel world on a beautiful secluded island somewhere tropical & as Holland says it's Magical. Holland is pushed out of retirement when he is visited by a man who needs him & i won't go into all the plot or story as it's better not knowing everything but Holland comes out of his comfort zone & back into the violent world to hunt down & EXECUTE a very Evil torture expert called the Doctor who is used around the world by armies to really hurt people in the most evil & depraved ways. This is a very harsh, raw & very brutal Thriller & Bronson is Fantastic here!!! Holland is a great & fascinating character & you want to know about him!!! The violence is brutal & real looking very gritty & in your face,this movie really is an 80's underrated gem, the action is very cool & fast & violent & no one gets revenge better than Bronson!!! The movie has that low rent grimy feel to it & a very dark atmosphere & creepy music almost like a Horror movie than a Thriller!!! But yes this is Bronson at his brutal best & should sit nicely next to his best & most iconic movie DEATH WISH (1974). BRONSON is truly a legend & his movies are nearly all great & i think he actually got bettter as he got older just check out his excellent t.v movie work as he's done some excellent Thrillers: FAMILY OF COPS (1995). A FAMILY OF COPS 2:BREACH OF FAITH (1997). A FAMILY OF COPS 3 (1999). DONATO & DAUGHTER (1993).

If you turned away during the sequence with Laurence Olivier coming towards Dustin Hoffman with dental instruments in "Marathon Man", you will definitely be turning away or going to the kitchen during several moments of this Charles Bronson film. It truly is a difficult film to watch all the way through, and certainly while you're rooting for Bronson to succeed in his efforts to assassinate in notorious torturer, you're rooting for the film to be over more.

The torturer, a doctor played by the eloquent Joseph Maher, is a man so vile that the necessity to watch to the end is obvious. It's a shock to see the kindly priest from the original "Sister Act" movie being so evil, and he becomes one of the most notorious film villains of all time. Jose Ferrer, who has played his share of film villains, is the man who asks Bronson to go after him and kill him, utilizing the murder of one at Bronson's friends as motive.

This is a very cruel movie, showing the evils of leaders of certain third world countries who find such men as Maher to silence their enemies. Theresa Saldana is sympathetic as the widow of one of the victims, and Antoinette Bower is absolutely vile as the doctor's sister who supports all of his methods. It's painful to not only see the tortures utilize here but to listen to the descriptions of them. Certainly not the kind of movie you want to watch before you go to bed.

In 1984 the film The Evil That Men Do was very relevant because of the news coming out of El Salvador. During the Cold War the USA supported some pretty nauseating folks, El Salvador's regime was one of them. The unnamed Central American country where the action takes place is El Salvador.

Charles Bronson is a retired hit-man who takes a commission to avenge the death of Theresa Saldana's husband, a journalist critical of the regime. The guy she holds responsible is Joseph Maher, known as 'El Doctor' a bloodless sadist of distinctly non-Latin origin who apparently holds the rank of torturer in chief.

It's Maher's performance which you will remember from The Evil That Men Do. He's a man who apparently studied under Joseph Mengele and learned the trade well. He has but one weakness, for his lesbian sister, Antoinette Bower. Bronson plays on that to get his man.

Also note some good work from Raymond St. Jacques as Maher's number one assistant and from John Glover a sleazy CIA station chief in Central America who apparently Maher and company can call on for help.

Jose Ferrer is in the film all too briefly at the beginning as he hires Bronson on Saldana's behalf. He's always been a favorite of mine, I wish there was more of him here.

As for the climax, Director J. Lee Thompson took his inspiration from Tennessee Williams's Suddenly Last Summer. Some very eerie parallels to what happens to Sebastian in that film.

I like The Evil That Men Do because it deals with evil as an entity unto itself. We just have to remember 9/11 to realize that. The Doctor is pure evil and we rejoice in bringing him down.