Film Review: JUSTICE (2011)

[A.K.A. SEEKING JUSTICE]

Director: Roger Donaldson
Writers: Todd Hickey (story), Robert Tannen (story/screenplay)
Running Time: 101 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Action/Thriller
UK Release Date: 18^th November 2011

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 5^th August 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I find that Nic Cage is like that box of chocolates mentioned in the film ‘Forrest Gump’… “You just don’t know what you gonna git”. Bearing that in mind, it’s always worth giving any Nic Cage film a look. The question is, will we get ‘Good Nic’, or will we get ‘Bad Nic’? In this case, it’s ‘Okay Nic’, as far as I’m concerned. He’s pretty good, but I’ve seen much better and much much worse from him! But it’s not all about Nic, there’s much more to tell… after this very brief summary.

Will Gerard is a New Orleans schoolteacher, an average guy who just wants a quiet life with his wife Laura, a musician in an orchestra. Their lives are shattered one night when Laura is attacked and raped by a recently released convicted rapist. Will is approached in the hospital by a man who calls himself Simon. He offers to take care of the situation if Will agrees to help his organisation out at some point in the future. He agrees and the rapist is taken care of. Now Will is in their debt, but how high is the price he has to pay for their help? I guess that’s enough to tempt you so I’ll leave it there or the Spoiler Police (Vigilante Division) will be asking favours of me.

Well made with some nice action and stunt sequences. Point of interest; I happened to notice in the opening credits that one of the producers was one Tobey Maguire, but not one spidey-web anywhere! All the performances were very good with Nicolas Cage taking the lead role of Will Gerard. I’ve seen both better and worse from him and I wasn’t entirely convinced, I guess he was good without being great. January Jones did a great job as his wife, Laura; as did Guy Pearce as the mysterious Simon. Also worthy of note were; Harold Perrineau as Will’s best friend, Jimmy and Jennifer Carpenter as Laura’s best friend Trudy.

I guess this is one of those films that, if it didn’t have the likes of Nicolas Cage and Guy Pearce in the cast, you’d be pretty happy with. But because it has these two fine actors in it (amongst others) you would not be shot down for expecting a little more. Not that I was particularly disappointed; it was a perfectly decent action/thriller but I just somehow expected a little more, given the cast. I gave it a decent score because it did have a nice plot and there wasn’t much wrong with the script. Over all, a decent watch, although you may find yourself wanting a little more by the end… Still worth a look though.

SteelMonster’s verdict: RECOMMENDED.

My Score 5.8/10

IMDb Score: 6.1/10 (based on 15,875 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1214962/

MetaScore: 38/100: (Based on 21 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 25/100 (based on 68 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 39/100 ‘Liked It’ (based on 5,323 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/justice_2011/

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FAVOURITE QUOTES:
[first lines]
Alan Marsh: Are you wasting my time, Bourdette?

Simon: We're just a few citizens seeking justice.

Simon: The hungry rabbit jumps.

Laura Gerard: We should go to the cops... we tell them everything.

Will Gerard: Some of them are cops.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Trailer: