Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Justice Blu-ray Movie Review

Is not served.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 17, 2017

The Western has been a mainstay of American cinema since literally the very beginning with The Great Train Robbery. It saw its peak in the time of John Ford and John Wayne, High Noon and How the West Was Won, and the many more beautiful, expansive, prominent, and purposeful films of the time. The genre has never quite reached that same level of mass cinema saturation since, but it has enjoyed a steady uptick in quality and quantity since 1992's Unforgiven revitalized serious interest in the genre. Unfortunately, Director Richard Gabai's Justice is not one of the new classics in the genre. Quite the opposite, the film takes but a dull stab at the genre, barely qualifying beyond the physical sets and props that crudely define the movie's timeframe. The film lacks purpose, pacing, good acting, well-drawn characters, and the direction and photography and sounds that so often enhance the genre. This is a baseline competent but completely forgettable film.

In the post-Civil War era, a prostitute seeks out spiritual guidance from the town preacher, hoping to find an escape from the harsh realities of her existence. Unfortunately, her pimp, a hateful, violent man named Reb (John Lewis), kills the preacher and burns down the church, taking his property back with him. Soon thereafter, the preacher's brother, Marshall Thomas McCord (Jackson Rathbone), rides into town, unaware of his brother's fate. A kindly local named Melissa (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), who has taken to preaching to a small congregation in the streets, informs him of his brother's demise. During his stay, he also learns of a plot to see the Western states secede from the fragile Union that is being put into motion by the town's corrupt mayor, Pierce (Stephen Lang). Now, McCord has no choice but to fight to avenge his brother and put an end to Pierce's reign of terror over the town and prevent a much greater destruction at his hands.

The film's plot offers little of substance, and the film's wayward writing, poor character development, disinterested acting, subpar story mechanics, and general lethargy -- a lack of energy -- all contribute to a zero-sum movie watching experience. The film in no way stretches the genre or even makes an effort to capture its essence beyond a basic setting and costuming. Wooden structures, dusty roads, period costumes, six shooters, horses, and hats do not make the genre. The film is spiritless, content to simply decorate the screen with recognizable symbols of its period but never offer anything of value beyond. There's little spirit to character motivations, hindered, certainly, by bad performances which are, in turn, stymied by a poor script. The film cannot catch any breaks and makes no attempts to do so. It's truly a tired, dull, taxing watch, even at a relatively tidy 90-some-minute runtime that drags by like a hot, hazy old West afternoon.

The film attempts to construct the obligatory romance, which is, of course, choppy and unconvincing. Actors struggle to command the screen or emote any sort of tangible emotion to any single or collective plot element within the film, whether that romance, dealing with death, responding to torture, or coming to terms with the dangers the villains pose. Even the movie's obligatory final shootout barely moves the needle, again depicting people shooting guns from various positions in and around the town but doing so with no sense of purpose, visual dynamism, any kind of intensity. When a friendly character is shot, it barely registers any emotion. The film does nothing to draw the audience in or make them care about any of the characters. It's a poor paint-by-numbers effort that gets the superficialities more or less right but fails to build on anything beyond.

Justice Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Justice rides onto Blu-ray with a perfectly serviceable 1080p transfer. The film was digitally shot. The image is resultantly a bit flat and glossy, which texturally betrays the core essence so often associated with the genre. The image's inherent cleanliness and smoothness doesn't seem to jive with the dusty, rugged landscape and can be a little off-putting, but it is 2017 and digital is the norm, where cost effectiveness and ease outweigh the textural qualities of the film format. Nevertheless, the image looks more-or-less fine in its natural state. Mild banding and noise creep in at times, but neither prove particularly troublesome in the greater scheme of things. Details are solid enough. Close-ups of clothing reveal impressively dense and complex fabrics and seams. Wooden building façades, dusty streets, facial textures, cuts and flayed skin when a character is repeatedly whipped across his back, even close-ups of scuffed firearms and leather holsters all showcase pleasing general high definition details. Colors are pleasantly robust as well. The image is largely comprised of dusty browns and beiges but a prostitute's red dress and matching lipstick, for example, offer well saturated hues that pop beyond the otherwise dull color scheme. Black levels hold firm and skin tones appear fine. It's not a great looking movie by its nature, but considering what it has to work with, there's little room for complaint with Universal's Blu-ray presentation.

Justice Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Justice features a nuts-and-bolts DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Music plays with fair front-end spacing. Surrounds are utilized but add little-to-no depth to the musical presentation; over the opening titles, for example, one has to put an ear to the surround speakers to even tell that they're engaged. Gunfire, as heard predominantly during the final shootout in the third act, features adequate punch and depth and a decent sense of immersion as shots pop out from various speakers all around the listener. Atmospheric effects are generally effective, whether rolling thunder or din in the bar, even if the latter sounds a bit more detached and canned than authentic to the place and the scene in question. Dialogue drives most of the movie, and there are no problems of note with detail, placement, or prioritization.

Justice Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Justice contains no supplemental content. A UV/iTunes digital copy code is included with purchase.

Justice Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Soulless" best describes the entirety of Justice. The film relies on costumes and setting to define it, and there's absolutely no spirit beyond. The characters are the very definition of flat. Acting is as wooden as the town's storefronts. The story is dull, the script leaves much to be desired, the love story lacks spark, the end shootout fails to excite. It's a rare example of a contemporary Western getting almost everything wrong. Universal's Blu-ray is unsurprisingly featureless. Video and audio are fine, but nothing all that special. Skip it.