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
