Justice is well crafted action-thriller in which happily married couple Nick Gerard [Nicolas Cage- Con Air, Lord of War] and wife Laura [January Jones- X-Men First Class, Unknown], are pushed to the brink where they are both tested when nicks wife if brutally assaulted and therefore enlists the help of a vigilante group headed by the mysterious Simon [Guy Pearce- The Count of Monte Cristo, The Proposition].
I was pleasantly surprised by this thriller which I found to be both engaging as well as entertaining as it offers an intriguing plot as it opens the film with the question of “what would you do?”.
The good:
The main component that drives the films is the performances and I am glad to say they are strong throughout. Nicolas cage plays the usual average Joe who gets caught up in a situation that he is in way over his head and therefore if pushed to breaking point and has to confront the fact whether he made the right decision or not.
Guy Pearce is a joy to watch as the merciless “Simon”, who will stop at nothing to achieve his goal and he is clearly enjoying himself, in particularly in the scenes where he toys with Cage in a not very subtle scene in which he gets cage to purchase chocolate bars from a vending machine.
There is also January Jones who impressed in action extravaganza, “X-Men First Class” and “Unknown” makes for an effective character and pulls off a lot even though she has a weak role.
The other main highlight is the films action scenes which are well shot and are very slick by director Roger Donaldson and offers enough in terms of thrills in particular a great motorway sequence in which Cage has to outrun some thugs and a great finale where Cage confronts the baddies.
The bad:
The bad thing about Justice is the running time as there some scenes that have the tendency to drag and it tries too hard to be like “The Fugitive” and it is a thriller by numbers and offers the similar premise we have seen so many times and does not tend to offer anything new but to play it safe.
Conclusion:
Overall, Justice is a satisfying action-thriller that really hits the spot and offers an engaging storyline, great action set pieces and well thought out characters that you can find yourself rooting for. It doesn’t offer anything you haven’t seen before but it’s a solid addition to the genre with a cast [ in particular Guy Pearce] that are all on top form.
