Justice

This is a solid crime thriller TV movie with some good performances throughout. It plows along at quite a pace and throws a lot of story into the pot, but it just about holds it together. The production value is strong and it still looks good today almost 20 years later. Its a mix of the mafia, courtrooms and cops, and attempts to explore what suffifcient justice really means in society. Be warned though as despite star billing on the DVD cover Jim Belushi has a small role here, and is best described as a minor co-star.

I guess I've become spoiled by watching mainly good movies in recent years, but this was by far the worst movie I have seen in a long, long time. It didn't even have the redeeming virtue of being entertainingly bad; it was just plain BAD. The acting was uniformly wooden, and the script was laughable. I was deluded into thinking that the film was worth seeing by the fact that James Belushi and JoBeth Williams were in it, and even Charles Durning is often good for a laugh if nothing else. God knows what they thought they were doing when they agreed to appear in this turkey.

Phew! I had to work hard to get my five or six brain cells to keep up with this one, a scatter-shot film in the genre of action/court drama/prison/gangster/revenge movie.

The film started off in Colombia where a DEA agent gets executed and micturated on, then jumps ahead eight months to a prison where James Belushi saves Henry Silva from getting shanked, then jumps ahead a year to a courtroom. I was beginning to think that by the time Charles Durning showed up, they'd all be in the future fighting on hoverboards (man, that would have been great).

The hugely complicated plot is this: Tracy Needham convicts a Colombian drug dealer who killed her partner, so he orders a hit and her partner gets wasted (as does his wife), so Charles Durning turns up as her protector and they go after the Colombian (who in turn are trying to kill them), Belushi is now working for Silva in the mafia (or is he?) and some Fed and her Marshall are covering things up for some reason I didn't catch. Got all that?

The film moves briskly enough and there's plenty of action and such like (except my disc had a glitch that missed out the climatic battle - cheers Cash Convertors!), but if you're drunk you might want to watch something with a simpler plot.

I give this film a high marking because Henry Silva is absolutely brilliant here. Just wait till you see the scene where, in one of his restaurants, he offers Colombian dealers a coffee and then charges them $2.50 for the pleasure (then gets really really angry when they don't want to pay) - worth watching for that scene alone.

It's alright. I must note, however, that I couldn't take my eyes off Charles Durning's frame. He's...err...a bit on the large side.

JUSTICE, or BACKLASH, was a dull and plodding TV flick about a prosecutor attempting to avoid being executed by a Colombian drug cartel. I watched it thinking it was going to be a Jim Belushi vehicle, but Belushi wasn't the star. A TV actress named Tracey Needham was, and while she was very attractive, she ain't no Jim Belushi. I didn't quite make it to the end, as I had to leave for work and I was getting bored anyhow. Charles Durning co-starred to no particular effect. While glossily photographed, JUSTICE looks like it was strictly a paycheck for all involved, including the legendary and ageless Henry Silva as Sal the Joker. And here we go again: IMDb wants more lines, God knows why. Brevity is often the beauty of a movie review. But not here. No sir-ee, Bob. You gotta drag these things out. Drag them out, I say!

Routine tv movie drama starring some actors who have done bigger and better things but seemed to be in this movie just for the paycheck.The movie "stars" James Belushi,JoBeth Williams,Charles Durning,and Tracey Needham in a plot that is totally unbelievable,filled with poor writing,and bad acting.Belushi,himself,is hardly in the film.It is true Tracey Needham looks great in the film,and one of the reasons for her healthy look is that she was pregnant while doing this movie.It is then hard to believe that a female DA in high heels(Needham) and an elderly heavyset cop(Durning) are working together and staying ahead and outsmarting the drug cartel that wants Needham's character killed.The real name of the film is Backlash.Horrendous is more like it.