Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Seeking Justice

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Mark Tolch
    Senior Member

  • Seeking Justice


    Released By: Anchor Bay
    Released On: 06/19/2012
    Director: Roger Donaldson
    Cast: Nicholas Cage, Guy Pearce, January Jones, Xander Berekely
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Film:

    Nicholas Cage returns to New Orleans, though not as the Bad Lieutenant this time, as Will Gerard, a mild-mannered high school teacher in Roger Donaldson's Seeking Justice. Spending his days dealing with inner-city kids and attempting to teach them the differences between right and wrong, he finds his life flipped on its side when his wife Laura (January Jones) is brutally beaten and raped on a dark side street. When a man named Simon shows up at the hospital, claiming that he knows who the rapist is and offering to “take care of him” for a favour to be determined later, Will puts his sense of right and wrong aside and takes Simon up on his offer. True to his word, the rapist is found shot dead in his grimy apartment, and Will and Laura set about putting their lives back in order.

    But as it is to be expected, the story doesn't end there. Simon makes contact with Will shortly thereafter, and the favour he asks sounds simple; Will needs to deliver a letter to a specific mailbox at a specific time. Will agrees on the condition that this is the last time that he'll hear from Simon, not knowing that he's now in debt to Simon's vigilante organization, who are dedicated to ridding the city of New Orleans of criminals. When he's set up for the murder of a well-known journalist, Will finds out how deep this network of do-gooders goes, and, unable to count on his friends or the corrupt police department, is forced to take matters into his own hands.

    Seeking Justice is actually a pretty entertaining film despite a few noticeable flaws. Critics of Nicholas Cage's brand of overacting will take exception with his performance in a number of spots, but it has to be said that he does play the film straight and serious for the most part. Countering the criticism of non-acting on the lead's part, however are some solid supporting cast performances, most notably from Guy Pearce, who plays Simon with a bang on balance of trusting good nature and malice. Likewise, January Jones, who most viewers will recognize from Mad Men, breaks out of her Betty Draper mold and proves that she's capable of acting beyond the vintage Americana housewife that she's most known for.

    The screenwriters and director Roger Donaldson have also made a great decision to shoot the film in New Orleans, utilizing the charisma and atmosphere of the Big Easy to their advantage…charming and friendly during the day, the city exudes a sinister feeling of dread once the sun goes down. Whether or not it was for the tax breaks that Louisiana offers filmmakers, the choice of location was ideal, and Donaldson and crew take advantage of a number of well-known locations. The post-Katrina condemned locations also add to the story; how else could you have a full-on gunfight in the middle of a city with nobody coming to find out what's going on?

    Despite Cage's occasional wild eyes and overdone outbursts, and a couple of eyebrow-raising plot holes, Seeking Justice is definitely worth seeing, and a solid checkmark on Donaldson's somewhat sketchy report card.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Anchor Bay brings Seeking Justice to blu-ray with a decent looking 2.35:1 transfer. The film is dark overall, with lots of night scenes and indoor shots, but detail is strong with good contrast and solid black levels. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track is also strong, with dialogue remaining clear and consistent, and also taking advantage of the sub and surrounds during the action sequences. Both the audio and video appear to be free from artifacts and other blemishes.

    The only extra feature on the disc is a short Behind the Scenes featurette, which consists of the actors and filmmakers discussing the aspects of making the movie.

    The Final Word:

    Flawless? Absolutely not. But aside from the few things mentioned, Seeking Justice is what a film should be, first and foremost; entertaining.

    Click on the images below for sized Blu-ray screen caps!



















      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X