Justice

Obviously a low-budget independent film, the production values transcend it's financial and practical limitations.

Stephen Lang shines as the corrupt mayor, sinking his teeth into the small role he is given. He clearly raised the stakes for the rest of the cast who all delivered decent performances. John Lewis is another standout, who can command attention with merely a cold stare.

I'm not sure if this was intended to be a faith-based film, but fortunately the biblical quotes and religious undertones are kept to a minimum. My only other detracting comment would be lack of character development for the Blacksmith, as I would liked to have known more of his backstory.

Otherwise, a nice little movie with a cool story that actual entertains. Beautiful cinematography and a haunting score also make this a Western not to be missed.

8/10

Cowboy cliché after cowboy cliché. The lead is a 3 rd rate Clint Eastwood and ever other character, from the saloon whore with a heart of gold to the wicked black hearted mayor, has less life than the stage props. How many farm girls in the West fed chickens in full make and a clean dress?

Watched the equally dire Hickock movie last night and another howler tonight.

Despite the excellent Stephen Lang being in it, he couldn't save the farcically bad acting of the rest of the cast , the dire story and the whole thing in general.

As someone else watching at the time pointed out - the characters all look clean and tidy whereas real westerns like Pale Rider they actually looked dirty, unshaven, wretched and like a real cowboy back then would probably look like - In all these modern cowboy movies the art is lost and its all full of pretty boys like Hemsworth with their six packs , tans and glamour boy antics - as my girlfriend often says- "where are all the real men these days"? - As i say , well you women ushered in the metrosexual and are now complaining that modern men have no balls so its actually your fault lol Feminism eh doesn't really know what it wants - like most women really but I digress...

Seriously though if you want a decent western you will have to look into a back catalogue of 20 years ago as I haven't seen anything to rival the WILD BUNCH or any of Clint Eastwoods epic westerns!

I kept asking myself, "Is this a comedy?" No, a comedy would be more entertaining. I had to conclude this was not an attempt at parody. I am thinking that the people responsible for this unbelievably ridiculous, half-baked insult to the cinematic arts were actually serious. I'm sure they were junior high school students with a lot of money. The characters are thin, stereotypical shadows of archetypal heroes and villains and damsels in distress. The sophomoric story and never developed plot will leave you embarrassed for the poor souls whose names appear in the credits. The scenery was pretty good, though.

I love a good western so much that I can even enjoy a fair to medium one. This one never rose to the lowest level. I also write for the stage so I recognize good writing. And directing. Let me list a few glaring shortcomings here: Writing. Directing. Sets. Make up. Costumes. Probably more. Everything seemed to be deficient. Perhaps the actors could have been good . . . but not when living with these problems. This production -for most involved- will probably be poisonous to their careers and for this I sympathize with them. One star. It goes downhill from there. During the credits at the end of "Justice", I noticed the names listed for the people in town and those who appeared as Army soldiers. It is entitled: TOWNSPEOPLE AND CALVERY. Suddenly I realized that my earlier, unflattering remarks were well deserved. Make it ½ star.