Urban Justice

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.

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.

This is more like the Steven Seagal that I used to enjoy in the early 90s in films like Hard to Kill, Out for Justice and Marked for Death. He actually is this movie and appears in almost every scene.

Apparently he has run through enough dead wives that no one would marry him, so he is after the person who killed his son. He is a determined killing machine.

As expected from a film that features urban gangs, every other word is f*cker or motherf*cker. I actually think they have beaten Scarface with this film.

The only real criticism I had was the lighting. Almost the entire film took place at night and it was hard to watch. I guess that is to be expected in an urban environment.

My man, Danny Trejo, gets his 15 seconds of fame in the movie.

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

Just saw this movie and wasn't expecting much as his films since exit wounds have been abysmal in my opinion, i haven't even watched flight of fury because by that point i gave up and just started watching the old seagal films when he used to do his own fighting an speech.well this film is a near return to form, its action packed very violent loads of seagal kicking ass, and i didn't spot one voice over, the acting wasn't bad either it is definitely his best film since exit wounds. Steven is still pretty out of shape but he pulls this movie off, there is loads of hand to hand combat,guns,knives and car action. Eddie Griffin does a good job as a gang boss and ads some decent humour to the movie. Don't get me wrong this is no masterpiece and some of the fighting is speeded up but i think real seagal fans will love this and will see it as a very big step in the right direction.