Justiça Urbana

An American action film; A story about a former special-ops agent whose son is gunned down in a drive-by shooting where there were no witnesses, and so to find his son's killer, he probes, unleasing some of his own justice on treacherous streets and towards other unseen forces. It's fairly predictable and light on plot but heavy on action. Seagal convinces us of his ruthlessness and amorality in his pursuit of his son's killer. As an aside, the production standards here are the highest for ten years in Seagal's film career, the last of which was "The Glimmer Man," which preceded a long succession of lower-budget direct-to-video films.

Steven Seagal's career after HALF PAST DEAD and THE FOREIGNER has been on a string of direct-to-video movies (and he still makes some of them in these days) that were mostly seen by his die-hard fans. Some were quite dreadful (such as PISTOL WHIPPED... a movie so dull that it looked like it lasted 4 hours!) and some were mildly ok at best (such as this one). While it wasn't excellent like Seagal's previous efforts UNDER SIEGE and ON DEADLY GROUND, it was more of a time-passer.

The plot is very simple: in the beginning a young cop is shot during a shooting in a tough neighbourhood. His father Simon Ballister (Seagal) is a former cop who wants revenge on the people that shot and killed his son. And he will stop at nothing to get his hands on Armand Tucker (Eddie Griffin).

One of the things I appreciated of this movie is that Steven Seagal's acting looked a bit more convincing than in most of the movies of this period and he actually looked pretty cool as he wasn't very fat yet. The supporting actors' performances were all good tho nothing exceptional. And the cinematography too was very good this time.

If you are a die-hard fan of Seagal then watch it, but for those who enjoy his movies from time to time like me, it could be a nice viewing experience if you are in the right mood.

Steves last two films (flight of fury,attack force)where how can i say completely rubbish. so one i saw renegade justice in a DVD shop i was a bit reluctant to buy it but i thought to myself give it a try it could be good.so i bought it and hoped for the best lets just say renegade justice is 10 million times better than attack force and flight of fury. but that still doesn't mean it is Seagals comeback far from it.the plot is simple a young cop is shot dead in a drive by shooting in a rough neighbourhood. Seagal plays Simon a mysterious man who wants revenge on the people who shot and killed his son. the film is an improvement compared to his recent movies for instance Seagal is actually doing his own fight scenes without the help of body doubles. also there is no dubbing from someone who sounds nothing like Seagal. but there some annoying parts like when every character speaks they start a sentence with the word mother****er and end every sentence with the word to. also when a person dies they die in an slow motion sequence that really got on my nerves.still not his best but a big improvement lets hope his next film is a bigger improvement.

6.1 out of 10 as average? I think this is a joke! Higher rating than Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, Out for Justice and Under Siege? You must be kidding me! This film was just so-so at Seagal's best. It was nice to see him returning to his old-school style in this one but overall the entertainment by itself was not that good. Of course, it is a lot better...I mean MUCH better than any of his DTV films but not Into The Sun. I liked Into the Sun over Urban Justice because of better production values and Seagal seems more on rampage in that film than in this one. I know Into the Sun didn't have that much action and fighting scenes like this one but I still liked it better mostly due to better camera work/techniques.

The directing was just average but not worth enough to prove anything good for a theatrical release.

With the profanity in this one...I HATED IT and I didn't think any of those were that funny. They tried to blow some funny one-liners but it doesn't work in this one. F bombs in almost every line which got on my nerves because it doesn't add any gritty feel to the film.

As what I exactly expected that I was having low expectations for this one, for any Seagal DTV films at the most.

I can understand why Stevo fans have given this a good rating because it is an easily digestible film unlike his normal messily edited attempt at action classics like Shadow Man and Submerged... I have seen all the stevo's and this is definitely just under average (subjective to Stevo films). He is trying, but there is a total lack of imagination in this film. The fight scenes are pretty unimaginative with Stevo doing a lot of donkey kicks that aren't really used in Aikido, He's to fat to do all these kicks!!! And there is a really boring car chase and an even more boring shootout at the end where he just stands still while bad guy's walk through the same door one at a time getting shot! What happened to his unique style that got everyone hooked like in Marked for Death and Out For Justice. The music is awful and detracts from what is happening in the story which is hard because there isn't much of a story at all! No no no!

Even though Stevo films aren't amazing at least they usually have imagination!! I thought Submerged was better than this film its got a lot of potential in the story and some great supporting actors and action although ruined by lousy editing... Urban Justice stands out as a Stevo film because it is well edited even thought the Story and the Screenplay are really dull, it is just a breath of fresh air for Stevo fans because his films are so formulaic and this film is slightly different to his usual offering.