Goodnight for Justice

I'm not into Westerns at all. I like Hallmark movies and I like Luke Perry (however never saw 90210!) so on the exercise bike today I thought I would try this one - 1.5 hours later, still peddling, feeling the love for Luke. Justice Goodnight is the main character and a well, pretty good guy with an edge. Luke towers in talent and interest over all the other actors and the characters. There are two other "Justice Goodnight" movies that follow up on this one. Mr. Perry developed the "Goodnight" character, so wishing he was still with us to film more, but we are lucky to have these.

Luke Perry saddles up as frontier circuit judge John Goodnight in the first of three films starring Perry as a Roy Bean type judge. Unlike the fictional Bean, Perry's a real lawyer and not a judge because he's got deputies to back up his ruling. What he does have is a passion for justice and will go the extra mile for it.

The film segments into three stories, the first is a prologue showing Perry's character as a youth played by Sam Duke seeing his family massacred in an outlaw raid.

We next see Perry's character unable to dispense justice to a young black kid whose father was hung by nightriders wearing bedsheets like the Ku Klux Klan. Perry does some extralegal work there however.

Finally Perry returns to the town where his folks were killed and takes on a gang that rides for the owner of the local Ponderosa who is going out of his way to persecute Cheyenne Indians. Again the object is justice and Perry has a way of brushing aside troublesome technicalities.

I like Perry's character and hope he does more John Goodnight films in the future.

always got an Achilles' ankle, i.e., the lukewarm loose screenplay that just don't count too much. And worse yet, anything from the Hallmark also inevitably hallmarked with lukewarm script, bad dialogs, not-so-good actors, so-so directing and so on. "Goodnight For Justice (2011)" is of course, no exception. What we got here is a so-so storyline with not quite believable characters who always look more modern and also giving a church-going like atmosphere that simply not quite convincing to me almost every time. I cannot qualify this movie as a good "New Western" but a bad one if compares it with "Silverado", "The Unforgiven", "The Quick & The Dead"...those, well, should be categorized as "New Western". Every time I saw a "Hallmark" movie, I got the same unconvincing feeling, no matter it's a romance or not.

How long can you wait for justice? After being appointed Circuit Judge, John Goodnight (Perry) travels the territory dispensing justice. After returning to a town that brings back memories of his parents murders, he sees someone who looks familiar. After seeing the last two TV westerns (Doc West & Triggerman) I was not expecting much from this one. Although this was nowhere near the caliber of "Tombstone" or "Open Range", this was actually a pretty good western. It is pretty cheesy in some parts and the acting is lacking, but it will keep you entertained and watching. Unlike the "Doc West" series this one will hold your attention and you won't forget what you are watching as you are watching it. The quality of westerns lately has dropped off a lot, this one stands above many of the new ones. Not great, but much better then the latest offerings. I give it a B-. Would I watch again? - I don't think I would.

Goodnight for Justice was a very pleasant surprise. The title had me guessing and I have to admit that I never even thought that Goodnight was the lead character's name! However, that was cleared up in the first few seconds of the movie and then I was able to get on with enjoying it on it's own merits.

I hadn't heard of any of the actors - which tended to put me in a frame-of-mind where I didn't expect anything outstanding. And therein, I believe, lies the answer to why this was so enjoyable. Luke Perry as Judge Goodnight was very good and so was Lara Gilchrist. He came across exactly as I would have expected a man with his history and I even felt that Lara inserted a little light humour into what was definitely not a comedy. Canadian Ron Lea also did well as the bad guy (Reed) in making me hate him.

As with your typical western, the good guy wins in the end and there weren't any major surprises but it was a really pleasant way to pass a rainy afternoon. I would imagine that, had John Goodnight been played by George Clooney or Nicolas Cage and Kate Ramsey by Sandra Bullock or even Angelina Jolie, this movie would have scored at least 2 points higher on the IMDb charts and it's a shame that, when a film has a no- name cast, it seems to be automatically marked down.

The ending leaves the scene wide open for sequels and I see that there is one so I'll look forward to seeing it. Well worth the time.