American Justice

Just for the record, didn't want to dislike 'American Justice' and didn't watch it with the intent to be malicious towards it. The concept is an old and tired one, so there wasn't an enormous amount of potential, but it was seen with curiosity because there was a pang of intrigue.

Like what was said with another film seen recently, '20 Ft Below: The Darkness Descending', it was a good thing that expectations were not high because 'American Justice' fails to deliver in many, make that most or even almost every, ways. It is not one of the worst films seen, of its genre and overall. It's not even among the worst of my recent film viewings which has seen a lot of above average to gem standard stuff and just as much wastes of potential.

Vida Guerra is the least bad thing about 'American Justice', she at least tries. This sadly could not for me be counted as a redeeming quality because she is used very poorly with a character that is both underwritten and underused. The rest of the acting, in a film with some truly bizarre casting, is awful, with John Schneider showing no range whatsoever and Tiny Lister being very nearly as limited.

Didn't find anything intriguing, investable or rootable about any of the characters, in a film where the clichéd good versus evil conflict is represented too plainly and far too black and white with no surprises, and the dialogue is both stilted and over-heated. The direction is flat and the music sounded cheap and didn't gel with the atmosphere.

Furthermore, the story, with the already old concept made even more fatigued, just doesn't grab the attention, gets pretty silly to the wrong side of camp and hammy, is very contrived and is not easy to follow at times due to being an under-explored kitchen sink of different tones and ideas. It looks poor, very murky and drab in lighting and filmed with next to no care or coherence.

Action is sloppily choreographed and is even sloppier visually. The ending is ridiculous and there is even a twist that just didn't belong and was one that added nothing to the character in question, was predictable to the extreme even before it came and was not easy to swallow.

Overall, a mess. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Very entertaining. It was good to see veteran actors John Schneider and James Russo. This film reminded me of the 80's action films with the disgraced cop on the run theme. Plenty of one liners and OK acting but great warmup movie if you're watching a double feature. One of the funniest quote from this film is from Tiny Lister, he was talking to John Schneider character expressing to him "The problem is you think you got Flipper in here but, m$@#&%¿* say hello to Jaws!" This may be Tiny Lister's first appearance on the small screen in a while and maybe this is a possible reboot to his action genre films..no matter I'll be on the look out for more from Tiny..Hopefully he'll return to the Friday movies when or if they bring it back..most important Welcome Back Tiny!!

Say what you will. Same old same old. Yet it was fun and entertaining. I found the acting quite good from everyone.

Sure at first you go 'oh no,'. But these are good actorss so I kept watching and the injustice just got to me so I was hooked to see where Tiny went and found out John Schneider is a bad guy!? So i am watching and it gets fun. TIny, and you know he can, takes his skills out. Very good I thought. A little detail I enjoyed . Tiny shoots a bad guy close up and says bang bang immediately after. Funny. Its a surprise right down to the end. All the cast were good and storyline was intense enough. I like action and this is action plus surprise- I heard some lines that were tributes or hats off to other movies. I enjoyed it. Sure should make a nice set of sequels. Evrryone was good, Tiny is great here. Had to keep remembering 'Tiny loves God' cause he is not very merciful here. Just a character. Good flick!

Badly made low-budget crime film with a fun cast doing some serious slumming. Very cool character actor Tommy "Tiny" Lister plays LAPD detective Jack Justice, who on his way through Texas runs afoul local racist sheriff John "Dukes of Hazzard" Schneider. That set-up has the makings of a classic exploitation film, something along the lines of "Black Sampson" meets "Walking Tall." However, this film is poorly written, poorly directed, and would have been rendered unwatchable except for the three leads of the film, which besides Lister and Schneider also includes the extremely talented and extremely underused James Russo as a rogue FBI agent. The fight sequences were respectable and I enjoy Lister in just about anything, although there's one dramatic scene where Lister attempts to "act" and the emoting it's not pretty. Overall, unless you're a die hard Lister, Schneider or Russo fan (which I may be), don't bother watching this film. And don't forget to stay around for the terrible rap music video over the end credits.