Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Welcome back Mr Seagal, we've been expecting you., September 18, 2007
While Urban Justice is not without it's problems, the most obvious being the embarrassing DVD cover art, this is the first Steven Seagal film since Exit Wounds to actually remind me that at one point in the action movie world, Seagal was one of the action kings. It's a low budget DTV and as such it suffers. Most notably the script with some dreadful dialogue scenes also interior locations looking like the cheaply dressed sets they are and second rate actors filling out the cast. Concentrating on Seagal, he delivers in the action department. His fight scenes are all Seagal, no body doubles in this one. Arm's and necks are broken, opponents are thrown across rooms and into objects, Seagal is fast without speeded up camera tricks making him all the more believable. I can't remember the last time I saw Seagal lift his leg above knee height, in Urban Justice he kicks several opponents and actually kicks one opponent in the face. I also did not see the large gut so prominent in past DTV's. As for Seagal's acting, as anyone will know, he will never win Oscar but he can deliver a believable performance as much as is expected in a martial arts action movie when he feels like it. In Urban Justice, I did not get anything except Seagal playing Steven Seagal for the first 50 minutes or so but in the last half hour he seemed to make an attempt at giving some kind of dramatic performance and I did begin to believe that his character had lost a son and he was hell bent on revenge. There is also no voice dubbing in this, roughly 5 fight scenes involving Seagal spread out over the running time but the camera at times is to close to see Seagal in his full martial arts splendor which has been diluted with some choppy editing, one very badly edited and unimaginative boring car chase that made no sense, one very brutal and bloody shot out involving Seagal and an entire gang coming to wipe him out and the main one on one showdown at the end with the villain who killed Seagal's characters son. One thing I was disappointed with was that there was no dialogue during the final fight. I would have thought that Seagal's character would have taken some pleasure in torturing the man who murdered his son but it wasn't to be. Eddie Griffin did ok as the villain but the script did not give him any room to do much with his character and he became annoying towards the end. Danny Trejo, looking like a Mexican Charles Bronson appears for about 3 minutes and almost steels the film from everyone and ended up having the best line when one of his girls serves him some drinks. It was good to see Seagal and Trejo back on screen together again since Marked For Death. I have mixed feelings about Urban Justice. I can not stress enough how much of an improvement this is compared to Seagals past DTV's but it's also a low budget DTV with a very generic dead son revenge plot with so so direction, a bad script, and some inferior acting. The dreaded fake driving sequences with rear projection also shows it's ugly head again. There were rumors that Urban Justice could get a limited theatrical release but in my opinion it is strictly of DTV quality and nothing more. It's hard to believe that it's now 15 years since Under Siege but Seagal actually showed with Urban Justice that he is still up to the action challenge so it leaves a bitter sweet taste to see what he can do in an action film but to have to see glimmers of it in some dreadful DTV's that he has been involved with in the past. If Seagal had been making DTV's up to this production level standard this past 6 years I'd say give him another shot at a theatrical release and I'll put my money down and go see it. Urban Justice deserves to do better financial than it is going to do but Seagal has only himself to blame for that as fans left in droves because of the terrible films he has at times been involved with since Half Past Dead. Martial Arts action performance wise this is Seagal's best DTV so far however Urban Justice taken as a whole, I'd have to say Mercenary For Justice and Belly Of The Beast are still Seagal's best DTV's for my viewing enjoyment with Urban Justice slotting into the third spot.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Big improvment, October 25, 2007
Seagal's recent direct-to-DVD movies have all been more or less bad. At best they have been watchable. When Mercenary for Justice came out, I thought it couldn't get any worse and then he proved me wrong by doing Attack Force. Many of the movies have suffered from incoherent scripts, bad dubbing (Seagal's character changing voices from one scene to the next) and lack of fighting scenes. I'm glad to say "Urban Justice" (aka "Renegade Justice") departs from this trend. The story is pretty straightforward and there are several scenes where Seagal gives the bad guys what they deserve. The movie is not without flaws (such as a couple of annoying supporting characters and cheesy flashback sequences, and the script could have used some tweaking) but it is definitely a step in the right direction for Seagal. I think most of his remaining fans will enjoy "Urban Justice" and those who gave up on him after "Attack Force" may want to consider giving this movie a chance.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fans, the waiting is finally over, November 16, 2007
Like most of you reading this review, I am a dedicated Seagal fan who has watched every one of those heinously awful direct-to-DVD things he's been making for the last five years, desperately hoping the newest movie would finally be THE ONE to usher in an entirely new Seagal era. I have loyally watched each film, disappointed to new lows every single time, sighing with disbelief yet also wanting to believe: "One day...one day he'll finally make a great movie again."
Granted, Urban Justice in not a great movie, and I hesitate to call it even a good movie, but compared with those bewildering grade Z letdowns of the last five years where the entire movie should have been left on the cutting room floor, Urban Justice is practically Oscar material.
For one thing, Seagal is actually acting in this one. You can see he's actually TRYING, for a change, to make a movie, instead of standing around like a cardboard cutout. You can actually discern some of his personality instead of those flatline performances he's been giving, especially in the first fight scene where he starts to back away from his attackers while saying, "I'm getting scared...I'm getting scarrrred..." It's actually funny, and THEN - we finally see the first real Seagal fight in five years. It's brief, but it's good - and who ever though we'd see him kick his foot higher than his head again? That's right, and it's no stunt double or trick of the camera. I was so shocked at this simple return to athleticism I had to put the movie in my DVD ROM and study it, frame by frame, just to make sure I wasn't being fooled. Steven Seagal is back in action.
Speaking of the action, most of the fights are fairly brief, but we are finally treated to a longer scene at the end, where we actually see Sensei using some genuine Aikido again.
The story is not the strongest, but at least is a progression of related events leading to a climax instead of the incoherent mess we've been dished out with any post-Half Past Dead release. All of the supporting characters can act; this isn't another outing where you spend more time gagging yourself over the horrible acting, which is just yet one more distraction in an already horrible movie. No, watching Urban Justice was... well, like watching a "real" movie. And at this point, with all the letdowns we've been given during the last five years, this movie is the one I've been asking for to get past the crap and back on track to more great Seagal movies.
To any fellow fan, I say: Watch this movie. It is not like those other disappointments we've had to endure.
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