Critics have lambasted the new film Death Wish, which stars Bruce Willis as a vigilante gunman who brings his own form of justice to Chicago by killing strangers in cold blood.

Opening in US cinemas today, just weeks after a mass shooting which left 17 dead at a Florida high school, horror director Eli Roth's new film has been described as "bad taste incarnate".

Based on a 1974 thriller of the same name, the film first sparked controversy when a trailer was released last August. At the time, Star Wars novelist Chuck Wendig tweeted: "Seems a strange time to give a high-five to an older angry white dude going vigilante with lots of guns". Meanwhile, journalist Jessica Lachenal compared it to America's pro-gun lobying group the National Rifle Association, writing that "this trailer is a huge advertisement for the NRA."

This week's reviews back up that first impression. "It’s hard to imagine a movie more tone deaf and ill-suited for its time," wrote Collider's critic Matt Goldberg, in a review that ran under the headline "If the NRA Made a Feature Film, It Would Be This". The Chicago Tribune's Michael Philips, meanwhile, was unhappy to see his hometown portrayed as "the city of death".