| Urban Justice (2007) Cast:Steven Seagal, Eddie Griffin, Danny Trejo Steven Seagal stars as a mysterous loner type (it's never explained if he is an ex-cop, a mob enforcer, an assassin or what not) who travels to the hood to find the killer of his son and avenge the matter, along the way he crosses pathes of a Black gangster (Griffin) who loves Scarface and provides the hit on our loner type in what has to be the best movie Seagal has made in years. Urban Justice for a change is actually a movie I don't mind watching again, something often not spoke of by someone who has just seen a new Seagal movie. It's simplistic, it's story is remarkably old fashioned and yet because the action is well staged and that Seagal actually does some akido and more the movie actually works. Indeed this is a movie that is far better than what you would expect. The main draw of what makes this movie the most fun is Eddie Griffin. Griffin is a comic actor who really made some blatantly unfunny movies really works asa bad guy, his one liners are often hilarious and indeed he actually poses a good threat. Seagal is, as usual Seagal but it's obvious that he has taken the effort to do a better than usual job, to do his own fight sequences and to lose weight. Seagal even walks around in a shirt which indicates a weight loss. How does Urban Justice compare with his old movies? Well tell you the truth not to bad at all. In fact this one feels like a return to form and unlike his other straight to video movies, this one is made with real quality and the vengeance angle works fairly well. I think though what this represents also is how old things have gotten, in that in the early 90s Seagal was chasing the killer of his partner, wife and niece, now the guy Seagal is avenging is a son who is well into his 30s. Urban Justice's twist is easy to spot and quite mundane but for those who were waiting for Seagal to do something remotely decent, this will be worth a look. D. Don La Faunt Roy*** |