By Geno McGahee
I’ve been watching a lot of action films lately. I have searched far and wide for horror films of the past and have totally neglected the more obscure action films that deserve attention as well. In ONE MAN’S JUSTICE, we have Brian Bosworth as Sgt. John North, an army drill sergeant with a broken home, but he is optimistic. His wife has left him, but he tells his young daughter that once they get things settled, they will get back together and be a family again. I was so happy until I realized that this was an action film.
A weapon exchange that ended with murder is witnessed by North’s daughter at a gas station, which leads to a big mess. Marcus (Jeff Kober) is a heartless bastard and walks into the station and kills the clerk. At least they gave the clerk a name. His name was “Hank.” Often you see the movie credits roll and you see “clerk”. They didn’t even think that the actor or actress deserved a name, but they named this one “Hank” and what a great name. I was happy to see M.C. Gainey in a role where he wasn’t a murderer or prick. He was just a good guy trying to make ends meet with a low-paying job. I felt for Hank. I think that ONE MAN’S JUSTICE 2: REVENGE FOR HANK is still a do-able movie. Raise hands if you want to see that movie. Wow, everyone? Good…let’s get the petition going!
Remarkably, North is driving by the gas station as the cops surround it and chaos is occurring. He walks past the police cars and sees his dead wife on the ground and his daughter in the hands of that madman, Marcus. He tries to reason with him but is jumped by two of his goons, but North is ONE TOUGH BASTARD (that was the other title of this movie) and hands both of them their asses. What does “hand them their ass” mean? I mean, what are the origins of it? I wonder if some guy literally handed some guy his own ass. I’ll research.
This film does the unthinkable. The kid is killed and you don’t often see that either. This film has several original thoughts crammed into a formulaic film. Remember in HARD TO KILL when they thought they killed Steven Seagal’s kid and he showed up alive. Films don’t like killing kids, but if you want one man’s justice, you need a dead kid.
North is now fixated on revenge and tracks down Marcus and did you know that Marcus has a secret deal with MC Hammer? Yeah, they pulled the Hammer card in this film. Hammer plays drug kingpin, Dexter Kane, but all I see is Hammer. They could have tied in some real history here. “I lost all my money so now I deal drugs. You can’t touch this heroin. I’m too legit to quit selling meth.” You see…believable. Marcus also has ties to corrupt federal agent, Karl Savak (Bruce Payne). Savak has great hair. It’s like a mullet on steroids and he is a prick with plenty of bravado. I really liked the character and Payne plays it well, bringing this arrogance to it and standing out among the various bad guys in this.
Mikey (Dejaun Guy) is a 12-year-old that sort of looks at Marcus as a father figure and helps him sell drugs and do mean things, but when he meets North, things change. The two find a level of understanding and Mikey is trying to actually get North off of Marcus’s ass. Forgive and forget in an action film? Really? Well, it nearly happens here. When North gets him and has him at gunpoint, he lets him go. North…would Dirty Harry do that? No, he’d splatter his brains. I’m disappointed!!!
The final fight between Savak and North was awesome and when I saw them run to the top of a building, I knew I was in for a treat. It’s not an action film unless the bad guy falls off of a building, and (spoiler) Savak takes quite a spill after a great fight.
ONE MAN’S JUSTICE is a pretty good action film, using established elements seen in most 1980’s action entries and adding some new ideas to make it more than just a rip-off of other films of the sort. Brian Bosworth could never fit into the role of action star, despite the continual attempts by Hollywood. He’s not bad, but he doesn’t have that “it factor” that the others that have had, but I give him an A for effort and I recommend this flick.
Rating: 6/10
