True Justice

The premise isn't bad - though nothing new: well respected, kick ass cop, leads a detective/strike team against the scum and villainy of Seattle.

Seagal - though I'm a fan, I get incredibly frustrated at his mumblings, dubs and can't be bothered style of acting - is OK in this.

What let's it down is it's lack of detail, the rushed script and the one dimensional and somewhat stereotypical characters.

But the fights are excellent, the cast - though a little weak (and of course they're hardly stretched) - do an alright job.

As 45 minutes of action/drama, made for TV - it'll do. Does it have much of future? I can't imagine it - but it keeps me entertained for a little while on a Weds eve. CSI:NY it ain't, but with the right producers, and a better cast, it could be along those lines...

Steven Seagal is solely responsible for this. Only Steven Seagal could come up with something this terrible. Only Steven Seagal could write, produce, direct and star in something this horrible. Plots are unintelligible. Dialogue is down there with the worst of Bollywood. The acting however, does hold up to my fifth grader's Christmas play. There is absolutely no redeeming quality to this no good, very bad collection of garbage. Not even Steven Seagal's hair transplant can save it.

Let me begin by introducing Elijah and the principal members of his team which should give you some idea of what you're dealing with.

Elijah "Papa Bear" (I'm calling him) Kane: Leader of the SIU undercover operation. Will punch you, flip you, or twist something you need until it breaks without a strand of his curious hair coming out of place.

Radner: Member #1 of Elijah's team. Scruffy, likable bad boy with a nice wit. Nowhere near the fighter that Elijah is though, and possibly the female members of the team. However, he will do whatever it takes to get back at you if you f!!ck with him.

Juliet: Member #2 of Elijah's team. Beautiful, long-legged brunette with an interesting dialect I'm still wrestling with. She's experienced, competent, and keeps cool under pressure. It's possible a man might enjoy it if she smacks him around a bit.

Mason: Member #3 of Elijah's team. Hardworking, by-the-book guy. Partner of Radner and voice of his conscience. Advisory: Got anything fun and risqué planned don't take him. He takes a bullet well, though.

Sarah: Member #4 of Elijah's team. New to the team. Pretty, but serious girl. Not as confident in the field as her partner Juliet but will hit what she shoots at and has no want for courage. Add to this a sharp tongue that's capable of expertly leaving a man sans his testicles if he disrespects her.

Seagal plays Elijah Kane (Gotta love that name),leader of an undercover law enforcement operation based in Seattle, Washington; the SIU.This is a crime drama focusing on murder and drugs. The movie starts out with the brutal shotgun murders of the owners (a man and woman) of a grocery store outside Seattle Washington. Directly afterward, the beginning credits appear to a catchy song I kinda liked (Is that Seagal singing?) accompanied by music video-style preview snippets of the movie.

After the introduction of a new female recruit to Elijah's SIU team, the movie gets rolling with a drug buy & bust involving a small time drug peddler who later on makes a deal to give up his contact (as they usually do, it seems) in exchange for leniency. In turn, his contact (or supplier), a hard case named Crystal who works in a strip club, rats out her supplier, a man named Domion, leader of a rag-tag bunch camping out on the outskirts of town. A Russian connection is later discovered, the principal of which is a man named Nikoli. He and his operation becomes the focus for the last half of the film. Concurrent with all of this --and connected-- is the ongoing and developing investigation of the murdered shopkeepers that occurred at the top of the movie.

Speaking with some kind of southern-style accent, I guess, Seagal plays his role as a kind of amiable, experienced, "Papa Bear" who could get rough while maintaining an easygoing, unperturbed, demeanor as if he were dealing with naughty children (Never mind that some of them are seriously trying to kill him or bash his brains in). For this film he chose to encase his girth in solid black throughout; possibly subscribing to the belief that black makes you look thinner which I'm inclined to doubt. Even his hair, a bizarre shoe polish black widow's peak brushed straight back, matched. I like Seagal, mind you, but you have to admit that his chosen hair style seems more suited to someone who wears a long black cape and comes from Transylvania.

I actually enjoyed Seagal's fight scenes in this movie which has a kind of "intercepting" and "economical" style quality to it wherein he quickly interrupts whatever it was you started to do or were planning to do with a quick punch in the face. This smartly nips things in the bud, I believe, before they turn into something that requires him to be more physically active than he's able to be or wants to be. Great style for the larger gentleman. Add to this some judo, and a penchant for twisting whatever you choose to throw at him into an awkward position and breaking it, and you've got some decent action I think. Finally, I surprised myself by liking everyone in this movie --even the bad guys. I think everyone played their parts well and there was good chemistry throughout. Love, Boloxxxi.

1 - If you like watching Seagal beat up bad guys with little effort, grab your snacks and beverages to watch a bunch of those scenes per episode. If you want to see him speak clearly or show any emotional range, fuggeddaboutit.

2 - The plots are almost comically convoluted, with more double-crosses and hidden agendas than one should have to endure.

3 - Be prepared for a whole lotta stupid. Characters regularly fire far more shots without reloading than their weapons could hold. Outgunned protagonists routinely waste ammo by firing multiple shots when conserving bullets is vital. Good guys with pistols are constantly facing machine guns, and rarely bringing the weapons needed to level the playing field. After downing a foe, they frequently fail to finish obviously necessary kills, or check the fallen bodies to be sure they're no longer a threat. Or pick up their weapons for much-needed firepower.

3 - More stupidity - When time is short and thugs are all over the place, Seagal wastes time and effort by beating guys up slowly rather than dispatching them efficiently to help the rest of his team with the rest of the minions.

4 - Several members of his team, including some who are actually enjoyable to watch, die along the way. The overall story doesn't really require that - and some occur off-camera, so they don't even get the poignant death scene they deserve. That raises questions as to the reason. Availability of cheaper replacements? Fed up with Seagal's ego running everything to his tastes? Better offers for other productions? Seagal creating turnover so viewers will stay more bonded with him than with the better actors around him?

5 - This one's a biggie. Season One sets up a huge cabal of bad guys with a nuclear threat, plus a personal revenge quest up their food chain of evil for Season Two. Even with the subsequent 2012 movie/extended episode, they don't finish the tasks!!!! The thing ends as if they were planning another installment that no one was interesting in funding. Or filming. Or committing air time for. If you crave closure, spend your time on another product.

True Justice in my opinion as it is in most people's view, is probably regarded as second to maybe The Wire as one of the greatest shows on television.

True Justice is not just a cop show either, just like The Wire. In True Justice you see politics, family issues, sexuality, and many other hard hitting topics that The Wire covers.

I was lucky enough to watch True Justice on a 40" HDTV and slowly made my way through the vice and darkness that surrounds the show and its characters.

All I can really say is The Wire has only barely just topped True Justice in my opinion as a hard hitting gritty show. Both are almost fully fair in greatness, if not for The Wire beating the other by an inch. Through True Justice, you are tagging along on a journey with Steven Seagal and his team, through some harrowing and disturbing stories to the finale of this amazing show. Just as the The Wire is considered to be an analysis of society, I believe True Justice is too more so through the police but you still see both sides of the same argument from the political and criminal side too.

As each season passes and new ones open, we are left with many questions, awaiting answers. We await retribution, vengeance, and just deserves but we keep watching as it it so addictive. True Justice barely scrapes the top of the world of policing, especially in a city like Seattle, but it does a good job and comes close to the scale The Wire takes on. Tear jerking acting, top-notch plots and directing. True Justice to me and many others is right up there next to The Wire.