Due Justice

I love me a good revenge flick; after all, it is a dish that is best served cold. Lately, revenge movies have been having their moment, but like everything, there are levels to them. For me, the top-level ones have good stories that don’t rely on easy solutions for the plot. That, though, is not a ‘hard- no’ for me, as if the revenge movie kicks ass, I don’t care about anything else other than that. Unfortunately, sometimes bad is just bad, and after watching Javier Reyna’s new movie Due Justice, I think I am due that time back.

In the lovely city of Seattle, Max (Kellan Lutz) is living a good life. He is a real estate lawyer, has a daughter and a fantastic wife, plus he is about to close a big deal. It is during a lunch with his boss that is about to cause his life to take a major detour. After hearing a familiar laugh, he approaches his brother Jerry (Manu Intiraymi), but he pretends he doesn’t know him. It turns out Jerry is an undercover F.B.I agent, and he was trying to get in with a crew led by Ellis (Jeff Fahey), because all good gangs are led by a guy with one name. Sensing something didn’t feel right, Ellis and his crew discover Jerry’s truth and end up killing him, Max’s wife, and taking Max’s daughter. Max, though, is not taking this sitting down, and being ex-navy, he has the skills to handle finding his daughter himself. While Max is doing things his way, Detective Santiago (Efren Ramirez) is trying to solve the case as well. Things, though, are not what they appear, and the line between right and wrong soon becomes blurred.

I really question if writer/director Javier Reyna has actually seen a revenge flick before? While most of them are known for their brutality, Reyna decides to keep the deaths off-screen, thus getting the viewer more pumped up. If that isn’t enough to push you away, it takes a while to even get to the no-show kills, as the first half of the movie is just lots of talking. Nothing really makes sense, starting with the criminals, who are confusingly presented, and the choice to spend more time on Santiago’s personal life than on the central story also seems misplaced. As for our hero, or anti-hero, he walks around the entire movie with a baffled look on his face, that only mirrors the viewers by the time it’s all over.

Due Justice is not your average revenge thriller, as it doesn’t really make you feel anything. As a viewer, it is hard to get behind something that is so poorly delivered, so much so that even the actors seem to be sleepwalking through it. The exception to that might be Fahey, who takes advantage of some good scene-chewing moments. That, though, is about it, as I knew I was in for something on the lower spectrum pretty quickly. I guess we can give everyone an “A” for effort, but after this, the only due justice I wish to dish out is to save you from wasting your time with this one.