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5.3/10
1.3K
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When a man's wife and family are murdered, he plots revenge only to find out that the killer is under Federal protection and he must exact his own form of justice.When a man's wife and family are murdered, he plots revenge only to find out that the killer is under Federal protection and he must exact his own form of justice.When a man's wife and family are murdered, he plots revenge only to find out that the killer is under Federal protection and he must exact his own form of justice.
M.C. Hammer
- Dexter Kane
- (as Hammer)
Robert LaSardo
- Tattoist
- (as Robert La Sardo)
Christopher M. Brown
- Jake
- (as Christopher Brown)
Justice Bowens
- Mustapha
- (as R.B. Bowens)
- Directors
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
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Being a fan of Kurt Wimmer, I decided that this movie was a must-see for me. Equilibrium is a genuinely great movie and Ultraviolet, though heavily flawed, had enough good action and heart to separate from similar movies. One Tough Bastard, however, is a bad 80's revenge movie made in the middle of the 90's. It would be a typical revenge flick, except it pretty much forgets this fact with some silly subplot involving experimental guns (actually Mini 14's with slight cosmetic modifications). These superguns are a letdown too, since they're only fired once during a test run.
The fight scenes aren't very good, but they have their moments, where Wimmer shows his distinctive innovations.
There aren't many interesting characters, except for corrupt agent Karl Savak. He is distinctively cheesy and entertaining, even though his quips are rather lame (as is most the dialogue). Aside from (don't laugh) MC Hammer's appearance as a villain, the movie does not have many interesting characters. An inner city black child whom Bosworth takes under his wing is particularly clichéd and uninteresting.
It's almost hard to believe that Wimmer went on to make Equilibrium and Ultraviolet.
The fight scenes aren't very good, but they have their moments, where Wimmer shows his distinctive innovations.
There aren't many interesting characters, except for corrupt agent Karl Savak. He is distinctively cheesy and entertaining, even though his quips are rather lame (as is most the dialogue). Aside from (don't laugh) MC Hammer's appearance as a villain, the movie does not have many interesting characters. An inner city black child whom Bosworth takes under his wing is particularly clichéd and uninteresting.
It's almost hard to believe that Wimmer went on to make Equilibrium and Ultraviolet.
I haven't made it all the way through this movie yet, but I have to say that this is one of the best terrible movies I have ever seen. It's an almost standard "good guy vs. cop gone bad" story, but the level of "bad" that the cop has going for himself is ridiculous. The bad guy is so bad that in the first scene that I saw him in he shoots up a room full of drug dealers, then someone else comes in to shoot him and he shoots them too. Blood all over the place. Again, standard fair for a movie like this. The best scene in this movie was where the bad guy is talking to an informant while holding an ice cream cone. The informant doesn't give him the information that he wanted so out of nowhere the bad guy kicks him in the crotch so hard the informant throws up. I hadn't really been paying attention to the movie up until this point, and maybe it says something about my generation, but I couldn't stop laughing at that. It's like the script writers went "OK, he's bad sure, we've shown him smuggling drugs and shooting people and being in general a terrible person, but what can we do to make it clear that this is the bad guy? I know! Let's have him kick a guy in the crotch really hard! BRILLIANT!" Of course, the other possibility is that the actor was a method actor and this was an improved action on his part. If so, that is the most brilliant director in the world to allow it to be kept in, since that's not what's happening, it's still a really odd action movie.
Found on NETFLIX-had so many of my fave 'character actors': Bruce Payne, (WARLOCK 3, CHARMED, SWITCH), Jeff Kober, (everyone's fave bad guy!), MC Hammer, Neal McDonough (Desperate Housewives, TIMELINE, BOOMTOWN,) Robert LaSardo (Nip/Tuck, General Hospital) among others, just had to watch! Stayed interested; well paced. Though I still can't understand how Brian Bosworth ever became a movie actor, this is one of his 'better' roles and very believable. Don't agree with the goof-looks like one side of the windows exploded, then the others, which would make sense. Not too much blood, though lots of guns and kicks. If you like these guys, well worth the 90+ minutes!
The film started out with a boot camp situation with a drill instructor breaking in his new company of Army enlistments. All of a sudden there is a horror show going on in a local convenient store, where things start being turned into Swiss Cheese and lots of tomato juice. The Army instructor is Brian Bosworth,(John North),"Mach 2",'01,who winds up in a hospital for a few weeks and when he gets outside the door, all hell breaks loose. In this picture there is a very young boy who deals with drugs and is very street smart, which in today's society is being used all the time. These kids are under age and cannot be given hard sentences, so they do the dirty work of the Older Boys. Bruce Payne,(Karl Savak),"Hellborn",'03 gives an outstanding performance as an FBI agent who seems to like evil more than good. This is an entertaining film, but there is nothing you will remember about this film after an hour goes bye~! This film was called two names: "One Man's Justice" and "One Tough Bastard", whatever you prefer
Bosworth shows us now, that he can act. He's very good here, putting a lot of heart into his performance. He plays Seargeant North who runs an army corp. Unfortunately for his little daughter and ex wife, they were in the wrong place in the wrong when they're witnesses to a shootout involving some bad guys, one being the ever villainous Kober of course. Bosworth comes a little too late, him taking a bullet too, but surviving. Only there's more dangerous people higher, corrupt DEA agents, led by the versatile Payne as Drew Savaak. Payne creates a real piece of work here, where killer Kober, a real piece of s..t here, is kept under his protection. Bosworth who finally has to pull the plug on his daughter's life support, where the wife'e was executed, starts asking questions and getting involved, as smelling the rats, where he exacts his own investigation and revenge. He forms a friendship with a black kid, Mikey, who helps him, while Bosworth may of found a new love, as he develops a soft spot for Mikey's mother, a social worker if memory serves me correct. Mikey has his own vendetta too, wanting to go after the guys who shot his friend. I loved the scene in the restaurant between the two, exchanging their resolutions on the killers, when they find 'em. Bosworth, a great role figure here, telling Mikey it's wrong to kill, warning him on the consequences. Mikey then asks Bosworth, "What are you gonna do, when you find em". Bosworth of course not stating the obvious, comes out with a safer answer "This is different". OTB is a solid actioner with heart too, you wouldn't expect the movie to be this good. Bosworth is a force to be reckoned with. I loved it when he was kicking a..e as you so much wanted him too. His acting, particularly at the start, really impressed. There's no denying, Payne's evil presence here is fantastic. He even brought some of his mob from Passenger 57 on board, a film I loved him in.
Did you know
- TriviaThough credited as director, Kurt Wimmer was removed early during filming and producer Kurt Anderson took over as director.
- GoofsIn the cemetery scene Sgt. John North is wearing a field grade officers cap (embellishments on visor) instead of an enlisted type (plain black visor).
- Quotes
Karl Savak: Don't you know it's illegal to drive while dead?
- Alternate versionsGerman VHS release, rated "Not under 18", is cut by a little over five minutes to secure such rating. There is another release with "SPIO/JK" approval, which is completely uncut. Only in October of 2024 the uncut version was given a "Not under 18" rating after a successful FSK rating re-examination.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Hot Fuzz (2007)
- SoundtracksThis Time
(uncredited)
Written by Anthony Marinelli
Performed by Russ Parrish
Produced by Anthony Marinelli
- How long is One Man's Justice?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 40 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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