Justice (a.k.a. Seeking Justice), 2011.
Directed by Roger Donaldson.
Staring Nicolas Cage, January Jones, Jennifer Carpenter, Guy Pearce, IronE Singleton and Harold Perrineau.
SYNOPSIS:
When his wife is assaulted, a husband seeks help from a vigilante group in order to get revenge.
Nicolas Cage has a tendency to star in a lot of very underwhelming movies. The last few years haven’t been too great for him, aside from Kick-Ass. Could Justice be the movie that turns things around for him?
Cage stars as Will Gerrard, a high school teacher who’s wife (January Jones) is attacked and raped. Shaken up by these events, he’s willing to do anything he can to hurt the man that did this to his wife. He is approached by a man named Simon, played wonderfully by Guy Pearce, who runs a vigilante group that helps people get back at rapists, murderers and child molesters. Will has no other choice but to ask them for help and once he agrees they kill the man responsible for raping Will’s wife. Jump to six months later… it’s time for Will to pay Simon and his group back for what they did for him. When he learns what he has to do he has to decide whether or not he wants to hurt anyone or possibly put him and his wife in danger.
Justice has a nice set up and for the first forty five minutes to an hour I was rather enjoying the movie. Once it gets past that point it starts to go downhill. One scene involving a chase on an interstate, while somewhat entertaining, felt too preposterous as we watch Cage dodge cars going easily seventy miles per hour or more. There’s a twist that’s a little too predictable and everything gets too ridiculous as it moves closer to the ending. It feels like they started the script with a nice idea and didn’t know how to finish it as well as they started.
Casting for this movie was pretty well done. Nicolas Cage might have been the only miscast person here. He’s not particularly great but he’s definitely done worse in the past. January Jones as Cage’s wife does well with what she’s given but doesn’t have much to do. Guy Pearce certainly steals the show and gives the best performance in the movie without a doubt. A handful of TV actors make appearances throughout the movie as well. Harold Perrineau (Lost, Oz) plays Cage’s best friend and principal of the school where he works, Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter) shows up in a few scenes as a friend of January Jones and The Walking Dead’s very own T-Dog (IronE Singleton) plays a member of the vigilante group. Other than Perrineau the other two aren’t really given much to do, but Perrineau is good in his scenes.
Overall, the movie begins well and has an interesting premise but starts to suffer as it continues on and ultimately doesn’t capitalize on anything.
Flickering Myth Rating: Film * / Movie **
Jake Peffer
Originally published March 26, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.
