While Hollywood belches out its 600th soon to be forgotten trope-filled corrupt cop themed crimer since 1997, ambitious tough guy indie film director Michael Fredianelli invigorates his film by going back to basics and making a cop film more in tune with the genre's heyday in the 1970s. Simply put, JUSTIFIED FORCE is a gritty, no-nonsense police procedural with some of the most impressive stunt work you'll see in microbudget indie cinema. Looking back at Fredianelli's long spanning filmography (the guy averages an impressive 3-4 films a year (albeit with sometimes varying degrees of quality)), JUSTIFIED FORCE is easily one of his most well acted movies. Leads Matt Monaco and Kevin Karrick completely sell it as both rookie cop and grizzled veteran respectively. The two characters serve as interesting dramatic foils to each other and are a delight to watch. The movie follows a trajectory reminiscent of some of the best old school cop films by both giving us a window into the leads' daily grind by responding to an episodic array of dispatch calls and then building up to a larger case where the stakes increase tenfold. And once we get to the real meat, the film's villains prove to be just as effective and well portrayed. Robert Paine gives a good turn as the lead drug kingpin and is almost reminiscent of a classic film noir baddie while the "George and Lennie" relationship he and his oafish brother Manny (played by Bryan Hurd) have brings forth another interesting character dynamic.
Technically, the movie is well made and makes use of a fine selection of well dressed interiors and sprawling outdoor locales. The shootouts and chase set pieces are intense and look genuinely dangerous. Thanks to skillful stunt work and effects, you actually feel the gravity and stakes of what's going on onscreen. The film mixes practical stunts with some digital effects (mostly muzzle flashes) rather seamlessly and it's likely that only the trained eye (or an anal-retentive goober cycling frame-by-frame on their computer) will really notice the difference. The only real noticeable thing worth singling out in that regard is some CGI fire that reads as fake and it's hard to know if the choice of crinkly, slightly muffled flame crackle sound design that accompanies it actually helps punctuate it better. But by far, the biggest complaint comes to a dubious choice surrounding the lead cop's wife. She's supposed to be pregnant, but seems to be outfitted with only a pillow in her shirt early on in the movie to show this. The quality of the faux baby bump improves later in the movie, but the earlier blunder does detract and take one out of the movie somewhat.
Minor quibbles aside, JUSTIFIED FORCE is quality product from the Wild Dogs label and stands as one of their finest efforts. 2019 was a great year for them with the one-two punch of this film and their earlier released crime movie ONE AGAINST THE HOUSE. Cannot wait to see what 2020 has in store for the studio!
