Justiça Urbana

If you have seen any one Steven Seagal movie, then you basically have seen them all. This movie follows the stereotypical Seagal recipe of how to make an action movie. You take away a man's most important thing in the world, and that man will take on a whole gang land neighborhood and emerge victorious.

Yep, it most definitely is an average Seagal movie, as he beats everyone, regardless of their skill and weaponry. And he only gets shot once, of course, while he himself takes down numerous gang members.

The story is about Simon Ballister (played by Steven Seagal) who moves into a neighborhood under gang domination, after his son was shot dead here. As the local police is unable to uncover the murderer, Simon takes matters into his own hands and sets out to find his son's murderer, taking down everyone who stands in his way.

The typical solo Seagal hero against overwhelming odds. But hold your horses, this time is he is not an ex-Black Op, ex-CIA agent, or ex-whatever. No, to add mystery, we don't get any information on his background or how come he singlehandedly defeats a whole neighborhood.

"Urban Justice" is filled with ridiculous blood sprays whenever someone is shot. The blood sprays several feet away from the one injured, both in front and back. Yeah! That's what I thought too. That was just lame.

The action teddy bear (Seagal) does deliver his usual performance, both in acting and in fighting sequences. "Urban Justice" is good enough entertainment, taking into consideration that this is a very average Seagal movie.

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.

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.

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.

That says a lot actually, because I have disliked a lot of them. Urban Justice may have some clichéd characters, a derivative plot, a really lagging pace particularly in the middle, mediocre acting and some jarring dialogue. However, while hardly high art the photography and editing are a step above other Seagal films, same with the soundtrack and sound effects. The action is short but decently choreographed and has a tinge of excitement, the direction is not incompetent as it can be and while Steven Seagal himself is not great he is not as lazy and unintelligible as he can be. All in all, one of his better recent releases, but could've been better. 5/10 Bethany Cox