American Justice

Badly made low-budget crime film with a fun cast doing some serious slumming. Very cool character actor Tommy "Tiny" Lister plays LAPD detective Jack Justice, who on his way through Texas runs afoul local racist sheriff John "Dukes of Hazzard" Schneider. That set-up has the makings of a classic exploitation film, something along the lines of "Black Sampson" meets "Walking Tall." However, this film is poorly written, poorly directed, and would have been rendered unwatchable except for the three leads of the film, which besides Lister and Schneider also includes the extremely talented and extremely underused James Russo as a rogue FBI agent. The fight sequences were respectable and I enjoy Lister in just about anything, although there's one dramatic scene where Lister attempts to "act" and the emoting it's not pretty. Overall, unless you're a die hard Lister, Schneider or Russo fan (which I may be), don't bother watching this film. And don't forget to stay around for the terrible rap music video over the end credits.

Movie was nauseating, the music video at the end actually made me throw up.

Say what you will. Same old same old. Yet it was fun and entertaining. I found the acting quite good from everyone.

Very plain in its depiction of good and evil (although the actions of "good guy" Tonys character are questionable to say the least, Anger Management anyone?), which makes "a character twist" towards the end seem completely out of place. It's not a big one either. Also the mix, between veteran actors and some .. let's say beginners, is a bit crazy to say the least.

John Schneider is really good in this, though you wonder how Tony got in this. Not many expressions he actually have to convey, his emotional range seems to even undermine a Steven Seagal character. The revenge thing or one against all (almost) kind of heads into that general direction too.

Just for the record, didn't want to dislike 'American Justice' and didn't watch it with the intent to be malicious towards it. The concept is an old and tired one, so there wasn't an enormous amount of potential, but it was seen with curiosity because there was a pang of intrigue.

Like what was said with another film seen recently, '20 Ft Below: The Darkness Descending', it was a good thing that expectations were not high because 'American Justice' fails to deliver in many, make that most or even almost every, ways. It is not one of the worst films seen, of its genre and overall. It's not even among the worst of my recent film viewings which has seen a lot of above average to gem standard stuff and just as much wastes of potential.

Vida Guerra is the least bad thing about 'American Justice', she at least tries. This sadly could not for me be counted as a redeeming quality because she is used very poorly with a character that is both underwritten and underused. The rest of the acting, in a film with some truly bizarre casting, is awful, with John Schneider showing no range whatsoever and Tiny Lister being very nearly as limited.

Didn't find anything intriguing, investable or rootable about any of the characters, in a film where the clichéd good versus evil conflict is represented too plainly and far too black and white with no surprises, and the dialogue is both stilted and over-heated. The direction is flat and the music sounded cheap and didn't gel with the atmosphere.

Furthermore, the story, with the already old concept made even more fatigued, just doesn't grab the attention, gets pretty silly to the wrong side of camp and hammy, is very contrived and is not easy to follow at times due to being an under-explored kitchen sink of different tones and ideas. It looks poor, very murky and drab in lighting and filmed with next to no care or coherence.

Action is sloppily choreographed and is even sloppier visually. The ending is ridiculous and there is even a twist that just didn't belong and was one that added nothing to the character in question, was predictable to the extreme even before it came and was not easy to swallow.

Overall, a mess. 2/10 Bethany Cox