Street Corner Justice

The Beastmaster himself, Marc Singer (presumably having now lost his telepathic affinity with animals and subsequently washed up and looking like a right scruffy old sod here!) headlines in this action(less) entry as maverick cop (yep, cliché territory, full steam ahead!) Mike Justice, a man who doesn't play by the rules.....etc. etc........yawn. To be fair, Singer puts in a decent performance as always and is additionally backed up by a good assembled cast which includes the consistently excellent Steve Railsbeck and the perpetually menacing looking Tommy Lister but sadly, none of them are given anything of remote interest to do here in what amounts to be an entirely bland and predictable effort. If the truth be told, if not for the high level of violence, swearing and some brief nudity, I would have sworn this was a mundane made for TV movie. Oh well........you have been warned.

I was curious about seeing Beverly Leech in something other than the show 'Mathnet', which she is best known for. So, I tuned in one night when it was on TV. Whoa! Talk about a far cry from Kate Monday! Willie Gee was a role I would never have imagined Bev in for a million years. I mean, she was dressed in tight leather, smoking, kicking people's butts, and well, that just isn't the image I've come to know her for! I'm sure many of her fans would agree. It was nothing short of shocking!

The movie itself was pretty dull and I dunno, just lacking. But I made myself watch it anyway, and honestly, I don't think I would again, but I encourage any fan of 'Mathnet' to take a look at just how different a role Bev can play.

While Steve Railsback and Marc Singer turn in decent performances, the rest of the case, especially Soon-Tek Oh and Kim Lankford, don't come up to even high school Christmas program standards. While Lankford possesses a beautiful smile and has turned out to be a very lovely mature woman, she isn't convincing in the role of Singer's love interest, and Oh, who has done good work in the past, overacts to the point of burlesque. The script is nothing to write home about, and the production values are bargain-basement. The only positive I can come up with is that Singer is at least paired with a woman that approaches his own age. Rent STREET CORNER JUSTICE only if you want to look at Kim Lankford's pretty face.

Not being one of the best vigilante films out there, this film has still enough twists and atmosphere for its genre to make it exciting enough. For instance this combination of a hooker and a Christian worshipper who team up with an ex-cop for some vigilante justice, I haven't seen before. Also I think some effort has been made into the dialogue.

Almost all of the main male actors I find well above average. Especially Marc Singer (Mike Justus), Steve Railsback (sergeant Freeborn), Tom Lister Jr. (Angel Aikrns, and Bryan Cranston (Father Brophy) stand out. But make no mistake, this is certainly a b-film.

In theme it reminds me a bit of other vigilante films such as "The Annihilators" (1985), "Death Wish 4" (1987), and the somewhat better "Shotgun/Vigilante" (1982).

Yeah this is a bad film. Actually anything Marc Singer has done since "V: The Final Battle" has been of the lowest possible quality. Which is too bad because Marc Singer could have become a great character actor. Anyway, this is yet another film about gang violence that knows nothing of it's subject. The only high point is that it was all shot in Eagle Rock, CA (also where Tom Cruise's character from "Days Of Thunder" was from). So if you live in Eagle Rock or have ever spent any time there this film may be very fun to watch and see how the filmmakers have ghetto-ized the town. Other than that there is no good reason to see this movie.