Beyond Justice

Someone lent me the DVD of this astonishingly bad film. I would normally have simply put it back in the pile and forgotten about it but I couldn't sleep well at night if I didn't warn people about this grade Z bomb, that makes "Robot Monster" or "Plan 9 from Outer Space" seem superb in comparison. From pathetic story line, through mesmerizingly bad screenplay to abysmal direction and - ultimately - acting that would be laughable, , this film has it all. How in God's name this abomination ever was allowed past the producer's desk is beyond me. I have poor writing skills and even worse cinematographic skills, yet I could have made a better job of this "film" whilst under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. I wouldn't know where to start explaining about the bad points because - like a time warp map of the universe, where all points are both the beginning, middle and end, so this film's bad points actually conglomerate into one hideous melee of garbage.

Well, unless I see the next millennium out, I won't be able to come across a film as bad as this. So I can honestly and fairly give this dog of a film the title "Worst film ever made". Ed Wood - eat your heart out.

This film is a lazy studio money grab. They took a five hour mini-series called Law of the Desert (AKA: Maktub) and chopped it down to around 90 minutes and released it as an action movie. The trouble is that the original mini-series was a whole lot more than an action movie. Hours of material were left on the cutting room floor including assassination attempts and the entire subplot involving Elliott Gould.

The editing is so sloppily done that some of the cuts will jar you. People disappear and reappear in inexplicable ways. And quite egregiously, Omar Sharif's character arc was largely removed from the ending.

On a positive note, many of the action sequences were largely left intact.

Christine Sanders (Carol Alt) is a wealthy divorced executive with the twelve-year-old son Robert Sanders (David Flosi) that studies in an expensive boarding school. When her ex-husband Moulay "Ray" Beni-Zair (Kabir Bedi) kidnaps Robert, he travels to Marocco where the boy is the heir of his father, the leader Emir Beni-Zair (Omar Sharif), and shall lead his tribe in the future. Christine hires the mercenary Tom Burton (Rutger Hauer) to travel to Marocco with her and bring her son back. Now, Tom and his small team have to find a way to rescue Robert, who is in a fortress of his grandfather in the desert.

"Beyond Justice" (1991) is a movie with a lame storyline and waste of a great cast. Regarding the plot, why the unnecessary scene of the obnoxious Robert Sanders at the boarding school? It is impossible to like this spoiled character that smiles in all the scenes and is awfully performed by unknown David Flosi. Christine Sanders' decision to go with Tom Burton to the desert is unreasonable and a stupid way to explore the gorgeous Carol Alt along the story. Elliott Gould gives only his name to the credits since his participation is basically three cameos. Ray's regret of abducting his spoiled son is also ridiculous. The plot with "two white men defeating dozens of evil armed Muslins in their territory" is silly and ridiculous. Four foreigners defeating Emir Beni-Zair's army inside his fortress is too much. The sacrifice of the guide to save the lives of Robert and his mute friend, who is forgotten in the end, is absurd. But the icing on the cake is the corny and awful romance of Christine and Tom Burton is a terrible ending! My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Além da Justiça" ("Beyond Justice")

The synopsis on the video box hardly do any sort of justice to this movie, depicting it as more of a regular kidnapping story where a mother hires a rather unorthodox agent to trail her strange husband. But this movie has none of that. Filmed in Morroco, it is more like a modern tale of adventure in the deserts of Morroco complete with sword fights and camel rides.

A rich woman's husband, son of a Morrocan Prince, takes their son to Morroco with plans to live in grandfather's palace. While the grandfather declares the grandson heir to the throne and prepares him for living in the Holy Land and ridding himself of the life he once knew, the woman hires a few men (including Rutger Hauer) to get her grandson back. And it turns out to be a very dangerous mission.

This is a fantastic adventure film, though a pretty violent one, since it's a deadly mission and one that, although the main premise involves a kidnapping, continues on to involve all sorts of wild intrigue including that of a feuding Morrocan tribe. It seems so unusual because it is an ancient tale told in a modern setting when the family is taken away from their modern conveniences into a highly hostile desert scenery with completely different customs and culture.

These Italian filmmakers have given us something that I would less consider an action movie and more of an adventure tale. I would definitely recommend this movie if you're in the mood for something really different.

If you like to see camels grunting and crying in the desert and plenty of Arabs with swords clashing in the bright sun along with Omar Sharif, (Emir Beni-Zair), you will enjoy this film. The film deals with a very pretty and sexy gal with beautiful eyes named Christine Sanders, (Carol Alt) whose son has been taken away from her by her ex-husband who is the son of an Arab Chieftain back to Morocco. Christine is a very successful business woman in New York City and is also very wealthy and she hires a man named Tom Burton,(Rutger Hauer) to hunt down her son and bring him back home. However, Christine wants to go along with Tom and she eventually convinces him to let her go along and I think she bit off more than she can chew on this dangerous adventure in the desert. During some very action scenes, Christine and Tom do find time to passionately embrace each other and their kisses were very very long. Omar Sharif, Elliott Gould gave great supporting roles to this film which is very entertaining and different. Enjoy.