Street Justice

My review was written in June 1989 after watching the film on Warner video cassette.

"Street Justice" is a minor action drama going direct to video by WB as part of the Lorimar acquisition Good cast is mired in routine scripting.

Michae Ontkean toplines as a U. S. government agent who's now an embarrassment to Uncle Sam: his mission to pick up a Soviet defector in Leningrad was terminated out of expediency. Escaping after 12 years in a Russian prison, he finds the CIA has ordered a hit on him.

Ontkean returns home to Hoboken where his wife (Joanna Kerns) has remarried. The city (including corrupt police force) is run by the Chandler family led by matriarch Jeanette Nolan. When the Chandlers seriously injure his daughter, Ontkean goes on the warpath to clean house.

Pic lacks novelty in limning a tv-type tale en route to a bittersweet romantic finish. Helmer Richard C. Sarafian pilots efficiency but there is nothing here to grab one's attention. Tech credits for the mainly-in-Canada shoot are solid.