Bullet Points: One Man’s Justice

They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

In this edition of Bullet Points, I will ascertain if 1996’s One Man’s Justice is trash or treasure…

• Family Man: The movie opens up with John North (Brian Bosworth, Stone Cold) getting in some extreme exercise in the California hills with a little help from his young daughter Marianne, who has the stopwatch out timing her dad. After a great work out, John and Marianne have a father/daughter heart to heart. We learn that John and his wife Darlene have separate and Marianne asks if they’ll ever get back together again. John tells her that mommy and daddy still love one another and they just have some things to work out, BUT he promises her that one day they will be a family again… which is action movie speak for something horrible is about to happen.

• Things Go South: John drops Marianne off at school and then heads to his job as a drill instructor and hand to hand combat expert… Later that day we see Darlene pick up Marianne from school, but they have a few errands to run before they go home so Darlene stops for gas. Marianne gets out of the car to play and that is when she accidentally witnesses a murder. Marcus (Jeff Kober) and his crew were in the empty lot next to the gas station conducting an ammo deal with a rogue military man, who ends up getting shot after Marcus gets what he came for. Marcus spots Marianne in the bushes and follows her inside the gas station convenience store, where he proceeds to kill the guy at the register, Darlene and Marianne soon finds herself as a hostage… On his way home from work John sees a bunch of cop cars and cops with the weapons drawn outside the very gas station his daughter is being held hostage in. John also notices his wife’s car at one of the pumps… he stops his car and then makes his way towards the gas station… the cops are yelling at him to stop… John even gets shot by one of the bad guys inside, but it doesn’t stop John… he is a man possessed. And the situation only gets worse from there… 8 weeks later John wakes up from a coma and has to make the tough decision to take Marianne off of life support.

• No Payne, No Gain: Marcus wasn’t acting on his own that day at the gas station when he was buying ammo for a protype military weapon, he was there at the behest of one Karl Savak (Bruce Payne ). Savak is now after the guns that go with the ammo that Marcus was tasked with picking up. And the reason Savak wants the guns and the ammo is because of a deal he made with powerful drug kingpin, Dexter Kane (MC Hammer!!!!). Bruce Payne has quite the look in One Man’s Justice… he looks like a leftover from the hairbands of the 1980s. Which is a great look for an action movie villain, but not an FBI agent. That’s right, Karl Savak is with the FBI and all I could think when I found this out is that I wanted to see the 1996 edition of the FBI handbook, specifically the section on personal grooming.

• I Demand Justice: Most of the movie is John North seeking justice for the death of his family. John puts his military experience and hand to hand combat skills to good use while he navigates his way through a world of dirty FBI agents, street criminals and drug lords. John gets some help from young Mikey, who is also caught up in the drug scene doing work for Marcus. John, having just lost his actual family, becomes protective of Mikey and doesn’t want to see him become a another victim of Savak and Marcus… as if he needed any more motivation.

There are at least ten things about One Man’s Justice that make zero sense. Under most circumstances that would put the movie in the trash column. However One Man’s Justice still works despite its flaws or maybe because of them. I really can’t explain it. One Man’s Justice truly is a treasure and I understand why this movie came highly recommended to me by multiple parties.

Maybe Boz deserves most of the credit? He is great as Sgt. John North. He gets to kick some ass, gets to ride a motorcycle again, gets to shoot up a jeep and for a guy who fell into acting after his initial plan did not work out, Boz actually delivers a strong performance in the emotional scenes, at least by action movie standards… and it never hurts when the hero has some truly unlikable villains to eliminate and One Man’s Justice has a quality rogue’s gallery.

I have some quality Bonus Bullet Points for you to read right now…

• AKA: One Man’s Justice was released under its original title, One Tough Bastard, in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.
• Familiar Faces: Robert LaSardo of Last Man Standing and Drop Zone fame, played one of the numerous tattoo artists that John questions when he begins his search for Marcus, although he was the only one stupid enough to threaten John… Leo Lee plays Agent Tam, who like Savak is a dirty cop and has long hair. I remembered Lee from his work in Open Fire and True Vengeance… Neal McDonough of Walking Tall and Captain America: The First Avenger fame also shows up as Agent , another of Savak’s co-workers. Agent Ward.
• If You Ever: …wanted to see The Boz ask a man for some very personal assistance at a urinal, then One Man’s Justice is the movie for you.
• Legal Talk Quote: “It’s illegal to drive dead.” – Karl Savak
• If You Ever: …wanted to see Bruce Payne turn a gas pump into a flamethrower, then One Man’s Justice is the movie for you.
• Savak’s Things To Do: There’s a moment in the film where John calls Savak posing as a guy looking to sell some weapons, saying he got Savak’s number from Marcus… this causes Savak to write down KILL MARCUS at the bottom of his “Things To Do List”. What other things did Savak have to do? …Reserve a table at Rex II, pick up some dry-cleaning… Saddle soap his baseball mitt… Have sex… Have his pants altered and pick up some seaweed.