Watch Extreme Justice For Free

Excellent but underrated film

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Here's a film that was a warm welcomed surprise. If you want to be entertained, get Mark Lester to do it. And when you have great actors like Glenn and Phillips as the leads, you know you're in for surefire entertainment. Here, it's more explosive entertainment, in a well polished and slick actioner about loose vigilante justice, only the justice here is wearing a badge. SIS is Special Investigation Section, a secret division of cops, who are out to take out the worst high profile offenders, ready at the assigned locale, for when they strike, only we have more murders than arrests. Losing his cool with a scummy piece of s..t, undercover cop, Jeff Powers (Phillips) is the latest to join Glenn's warm posse of cops, but being a witness to long time friend, Glenn's reckless actions, puts a strain on the work relationship, where soon at first hand, Jeff begins to see the real truth about this organization. The films has great shootouts and action, brilliantly staged, with no dull moment to spare. Chelsea Field, a really good actress, plays Phillip's older girlfriend, an avid reporter, out to bust this squad. The last scene, a stand off between Glenn and Phillips, where all out war is declared, is my favorite. Have to viddy this surprisingly well made film again. To bag this film, you'd have to be a bit off. Great, exciting entertainment, based on real incidents. Watch.

The film open with a prologue telling us that what we are about to see is inspired by a true story, and the next credit tells us that the following film does not resemble any living human being, or any dead ones either. The first scene has half a dozen members of the Special Investigation Section (or whatever), under the leadership of Scott Glenn, shooting a hold-up guy to pieces. We get the impression that these are some tough fellas.Then there is a cut to Lou Diamond Phillips, enraged, behind the wheel of his car in a high-speed pursuit of a child-molesting perp. Phillips repeatedly bumps his car against the other -- a requirement in movies like this -- until he forces the fugitive through a plate glass window in slow motion. Then Phillips leaps from his car, pulls the bleeding perp from his wreck, and beats the unholy hell out of him before being restrained by his partner and the other newly arrived cops. A loose cannon alright, and a prime recruit for the SIS.What the SIS does, with the complicity of the higher authorities, is follow the suspects, wait until after the crime is committed, then walk in and kill the perpetrators. It's a death squad.When Phillips' girl friend, Chelsea Fields, a crime reporter, discovers her lover's involvement, they have an argument and he leaves their love nest. As you can see, not a lot of imagination has gone into this production, beginning with the title -- "Extreme Justice." You can, after all, have justice, but if it becomes somehow "extreme" it's no longer justice.The conflict between Phillips and his girl friend echoes the opposing values of lovers in previous police movies -- "Bullett," "Heat," "Serpico." And it belongs to a more inclusive genre -- career vs. marriage. See reporter Kurt Russell wrestle with Mariel Hemingway in "Mean Season." Watch John Wayne try to balance his love life in military films like "Wings of Eagles" or "In Harm's Way" or "Rio Grande." Now a member of the elite SIS, Phillips is happy as a clam, but when he finally grasps what's up, he turns to his girl friend and spills the beans. She prints it. There is a final brutal fight between Glenn and Phillips. The politically correct person winds up decked.The two leads turn in professional performances and Chelsea Fields is sexy. Yaphet Koto stands out among the squad members. The weakest performance is by an SIS member who kills a young girl by mistake and later blows his brains out. The direction is what you'd expect from a police movie built around several episodes of violence.

Fans of good action films will find "Extreme Justice" to their liking. What elevates this police special squad film above the competition, is the interesting and effective cast. You rarely see Scott Glenn, Lou Diamond Phillips, Ed Lauter, and Yaphet Kotto all together in one exciting movie. Ethical questions aside, "Extreme Justice" delivers the death squad justice in massive doses. If you are a fan of any of the above actors, then seek this one out, because you will not be disappointed. My only objection is that the female lead, Chelsea Field, playing a snoopy reporter, is rather bland, cold, and ultimately forgettable. - MERK

In a plot strikingly similar to that of Eastwood's "Magnum Force", "Extreme Justice" deals with cops that take the law into their own hands and execute criminals in cold blood. The blurring of the line between law and justice, and between vigilantism and paranoia, is done here more efficiently than it was in "Magnum Force", so the movie holds your interest, despite the routine on all other accounts script and Mark Lester's unimaginative direction. The entire male cast is solid, but Chelsea Field is unconvincing as the hotshot reporter. (**)