Urban Justice

Steven Seagal's career after HALF PAST DEAD and THE FOREIGNER has been on a string of direct-to-video movies (and he still makes some of them in these days) that were mostly seen by his die-hard fans. Some were quite dreadful (such as PISTOL WHIPPED... a movie so dull that it looked like it lasted 4 hours!) and some were mildly ok at best (such as this one). While it wasn't excellent like Seagal's previous efforts UNDER SIEGE and ON DEADLY GROUND, it was more of a time-passer.

The plot is very simple: in the beginning a young cop is shot during a shooting in a tough neighbourhood. His father Simon Ballister (Seagal) is a former cop who wants revenge on the people that shot and killed his son. And he will stop at nothing to get his hands on Armand Tucker (Eddie Griffin).

One of the things I appreciated of this movie is that Steven Seagal's acting looked a bit more convincing than in most of the movies of this period and he actually looked pretty cool as he wasn't very fat yet. The supporting actors' performances were all good tho nothing exceptional. And the cinematography too was very good this time.

If you are a die-hard fan of Seagal then watch it, but for those who enjoy his movies from time to time like me, it could be a nice viewing experience if you are in the right mood.

If you have seen any one Steven Seagal movie, then you basically have seen them all. This movie follows the stereotypical Seagal recipe of how to make an action movie. You take away a man's most important thing in the world, and that man will take on a whole gang land neighborhood and emerge victorious.

Yep, it most definitely is an average Seagal movie, as he beats everyone, regardless of their skill and weaponry. And he only gets shot once, of course, while he himself takes down numerous gang members.

The story is about Simon Ballister (played by Steven Seagal) who moves into a neighborhood under gang domination, after his son was shot dead here. As the local police is unable to uncover the murderer, Simon takes matters into his own hands and sets out to find his son's murderer, taking down everyone who stands in his way.

The typical solo Seagal hero against overwhelming odds. But hold your horses, this time is he is not an ex-Black Op, ex-CIA agent, or ex-whatever. No, to add mystery, we don't get any information on his background or how come he singlehandedly defeats a whole neighborhood.

"Urban Justice" is filled with ridiculous blood sprays whenever someone is shot. The blood sprays several feet away from the one injured, both in front and back. Yeah! That's what I thought too. That was just lame.

The action teddy bear (Seagal) does deliver his usual performance, both in acting and in fighting sequences. "Urban Justice" is good enough entertainment, taking into consideration that this is a very average Seagal movie.

Steven Seagal's career post Under Siege has been one in constant need of resurgence. On Deadly Ground was greeted with acid tongued derision from critics, thus followed up by Under Siege 2, an upturn, though still unfavourable in comparison to the first. Exit Wounds followed another string of poorly received outings. Then the downward spiral hit high gear with the odd (and only slight) upturn in films like Belly Of The Beast and Into The Sun. In 2007 it's seemingly a crunch moment. Seagal needs an upturn. His fan base is in danger of decimating, perhaps jumping ship to Jean Claude, Wesley or Dolph, heck maybe even Don Wilson when you consider how bad Attack Force was. Urban Justice needed to be decent, needed to hit the high notes. But did it? Well overall…it kinda did. Not to say it's a great film by any means, but it's an upturn in fortune for Seagal, and most importantly, the man himself really comes out of his corner throwing some big shots again. He's not been out for the count quite yet, and with a few rounds left in him, maybe he can still turn this fight in his favour (nice analogy huh?).

Urban Justice firstly steers clear of the trend of Seagal's post Exit Wounds flicks, and that is CIA/FBI conspiracy subplots that eat away at the pacing and clarity of his recent flicks. This plot line is simple, straight and laid out. Seagal's son gets killed, and he wants the killer, nothing more. There's nothing too much on the side that gets in the way of Seagal getting from A to B. Secondly the film features Seagal as prominently as a leading man actually should feature, both in screen time (some of his recent flicks have him disappear for sometimes 15 minutes at a time!) and ADR participation (no dubbing this time folks). Above all Seagal manages to bring back some of his charisma that had seemingly been left behind in the early 90's somewhere along with Kelly Le Brocks hotness. Seagal's cool again, he's badass! Sure a little chunky and sweaty still, but he kicks ass! The action in this film is pretty good too. There's a plethora of hand to hand fights, which believe it or not, actually feature Seagal himself! Yes amazing given recent history. His stand in, stunt double and ADR double sat around twiddling there thumbs in this picture, and that's good. Seagal fans don't want those guys too busy. The fights are pretty decent though and Seagal unleashes some pretty savage beat-downs. We get vintage moves here. He breaks every conceivable bone in the human body during this flick, a femur on one guy, and a couple of ribs on another and so on. Best and coolest of all is the fact that Seagal once again looks like he could kick most guys assess! He's quick in this film I'm telling you. It's that old school Seagal who can virtually stand on the spot, but a few lightening moves of the arms and hands, and big ol' size 16 boots from no where, and the bad guys are floored. The fights are well edited and though tightly shot, they pack a punch, and the sound design is top notch. As for the rest of the action, we have disappointingly lame car chase. Not so much down to budget, but down to a complete lack of any kinetic energy and imaginative stunt work. The shoot outs are almost Hard Target insane! Meaning entire clips are unloaded on each individual bad guy, and blood shoots out all over the damn place! In fact the blood impacts in this film are the most insane I've ever seen and totally illogical, but I love it. It's the kind of super-violence Seagal used to produce. Seagal also gives his best performance in a few years. He seems interested, engaged and as I said shows off his charisma here.

The director Don E Fauntleroy was previously responsible for two of Seagal's shoddiest works. His inclusion in this was a worry, but while those first two collaborations with Big Pappa lacked any real autuership of any kind, here it's different. Fauntleroy manages to project some vision here, some style. We're not talking Scorsese, but for these sorts of flicks he's serviceable. Elsewhere the co-stars are not too bad. In particular there's a decent cameo from Danny Trejo, while Eddie Griffin makes for a somewhat cartoony but well suited villain.

On the negative side, though the plot is very simple, it's simplicity should have lent itself to a quicker pace of movie. The mid section suffers some lag, with too many gangster based dialogue scenes. That might not have been so bad if anything important was being said, and also the script is problematic in that the hip hop dialogue isn't very realistic. It's as if the writer knew only a couple of hood words and decided to repeat them endlessly. "Aaaaaaariiiiggghhht", "Mother-f**ker" and in particular "n***er" are words that are overused to levels of almost annoyance. The relationship between Seagal and his snitch and also landlady could have been developed but instead feel needless and pasted in. Above all it would have been a few more scenes with Seagal. Elsewhere the score is pretty bad. It's a rush job without question and one that jars against the competent direction, editing, and an in form Seagal.

Overall this isn't exactly a great film, but in Seagal's recent canon, it's top notch. Importantly, the man himself is back to his old self again. If a better film can be put around him, he'll surely be able to deliver a film to rival his best ones. As it is, Urban Justice is a welcome filler and good solid Saturday night home entertainment. Coming from one of Seagal's harshest (though I maintain, realist) fans, that's saying something. **1/2

I can understand why Stevo fans have given this a good rating because it is an easily digestible film unlike his normal messily edited attempt at action classics like Shadow Man and Submerged... I have seen all the stevo's and this is definitely just under average (subjective to Stevo films). He is trying, but there is a total lack of imagination in this film. The fight scenes are pretty unimaginative with Stevo doing a lot of donkey kicks that aren't really used in Aikido, He's to fat to do all these kicks!!! And there is a really boring car chase and an even more boring shootout at the end where he just stands still while bad guy's walk through the same door one at a time getting shot! What happened to his unique style that got everyone hooked like in Marked for Death and Out For Justice. The music is awful and detracts from what is happening in the story which is hard because there isn't much of a story at all! No no no!

Even though Stevo films aren't amazing at least they usually have imagination!! I thought Submerged was better than this film its got a lot of potential in the story and some great supporting actors and action although ruined by lousy editing... Urban Justice stands out as a Stevo film because it is well edited even thought the Story and the Screenplay are really dull, it is just a breath of fresh air for Stevo fans because his films are so formulaic and this film is slightly different to his usual offering.

Steves last two films (flight of fury,attack force)where how can i say completely rubbish. so one i saw renegade justice in a DVD shop i was a bit reluctant to buy it but i thought to myself give it a try it could be good.so i bought it and hoped for the best lets just say renegade justice is 10 million times better than attack force and flight of fury. but that still doesn't mean it is Seagals comeback far from it.the plot is simple a young cop is shot dead in a drive by shooting in a rough neighbourhood. Seagal plays Simon a mysterious man who wants revenge on the people who shot and killed his son. the film is an improvement compared to his recent movies for instance Seagal is actually doing his own fight scenes without the help of body doubles. also there is no dubbing from someone who sounds nothing like Seagal. but there some annoying parts like when every character speaks they start a sentence with the word mother****er and end every sentence with the word to. also when a person dies they die in an slow motion sequence that really got on my nerves.still not his best but a big improvement lets hope his next film is a bigger improvement.