Customer Reviews

Lethal Force

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Based on a true story (?), this rather boring little "thriller" features the screenwriter Steven Owsley in the lead role of J.B. Thornton, a down and out lawyer who is recruited to put a Deathwish kind of cop in jail for his brand of justice. Richard Tyson plays Thomas Carruth, a cop who decides that if the courts can't put criminals behind bars, he'll do it. Tyson, who came to prominence in the steamy B thriller TWO MOON JUNCTION, overplays his Buford Pusser like cop with enough gusto to fill three movies; trouble is, he's about as convincing as a lumbering drunk. Owsley is earnest, but he'd better stick to screenwriting (although his screenplay is full of cliches and plot holes); he plays Thornton on one level, and when he "impersonates" other people, he's like a character out of Fractured Fairy Tales; way too much. Michelle Stafford as his new "associate" tries to be a new Marg Helgensberger, but her limitations are obvious; even Robert Vaughn as a crooked judge with little screen time is pale and pedestrian.
LETHAL FORCE plods along, with little suspense and its ending is abruptly anticlimactic.
An unimpressive failure.