Walking Tall: Lone Justice (2007)

Having watched "Walking Tall: The Payback" and "Walking Tall: Lone Justice" back to back, I can say that they are both equally good. Where "Walking Tall: The Payback" was more story-driven, "Walking Tall: Lone Justice" is more action-driven. Good or bad, up to the individual viewer, of course.The story in "Walking Tall: Lone Justice" is about Nick (played by Kevin Sorbo) who has moved from Dallas to start a new life with FBI agent Kate (played by Yvette Nipar) and her daughter Samantha (played by Haley Ramm). But Nick soon finds himself fighting to protect those who he love against ruthless drug cartel gang members as Kate is involved in a trial against them.Less thorough storyline compared to the "Walking Tall: The Payback" movie, but more action. So this trade off will of course appeal to some in the audience.The acting was good for a movie of this type, just don't expect anything extraordinary. Kevin Sorbo was without a doubt the driving talent carrying the movie."Walking Tall: Lone Justice" is a mediocre action movie, but is still worth watching if you got an hour and a half to pass and just need a mindless action movie for entertainment.

Poor, poor Elizabeth Barondes! After suffering through 1995's FULL BODY MASSAGE, 1998's SUICIDE: THE COMEDY, 2001's DESERT VAMPIRES (not to mention SEXUAL PREDATOR that same year), it only seemed fair that ER's ill-fated Heather would finally live through a feature film unscathed as FBI agent Marcia Tunney (a perky-sounding name, like Dana Scully) when teamed with big, strong, indestructible Texas vigilante lawman Nick Prescott (Kevin Sorbo) in WALKING TALL: LONE JUSTICE.No such luck! Since drug-lords and other baddies clipping off pinkies are a dime-a-dozen in action flicks nowadays, Agent Tunney has BOTH thumbs lopped away when she does not have the good grace to pass out after the first amputation. (Prescott is tied up five feet across from her by a bond so flimsy he breaks it with a shrug of his over-sized shoulders a minute later.) Director Tripp Reed records each severed digits' drop to the floor in loving detail. Perhaps it never dawned on Ms. Barondes, while accepting this role, that opposable thumbs are the main thing differentiating her from a lesser mammal, such as, say, a jack-ass.

No more small town sheriff taking out the bad guys entirely on his own: this time help's at hand. No more solitary hero looking for revenge: instead there is a small family there to protect. And no more rednecks set on spreading fear and terror for reasonable profit: this is organized big city crime in all its nastiness.WT - Lone Justice is a totally different ball game from WT - The Payback and it shows: it's shot and cut following other aesthetic and timing demands, the pace is very quick, the story doesn't take its time to let itself being told, the soundtrack leaves the C&W-style and goes for gangsta-rap (there are at least two remarkable pieces there, by the way). And yes, at least one scene is as brutal as they get.However: like The Payback, Lone Justice is almost a genre-study, bringing all elements of this type of movie together, mixing them well together and keeping them in line with a steady hand.The characters are believable - more than that: they are in fact so realistic, it makes you want to get involved with some of them every now and then (either to hit or comfort them, sometimes even both).The acting is outstanding, although in this one Sorbo's performance is at times too much of a good thing; he is delivering such a terrific job of making Nick Prescott alive and understandable in all of the man's struggles, that the scenes without Kevin Sorbo sometimes come over as a bit flat, which - in all fairness - they are not: the ladies in the movie are awesome actresses, the supporting male actors all good and their play's showing lots of different nuances to keep you interested, and Haley Ramm is by far the most realistic teenager I ever saw on-screen. Still: Sorbo outshines them all and - as it isn't a solo for him, but an ensemble piece - at times it would have been better to reign him in a bit on the enthusiasm with which he makes the part his own.Personally, I cared more for The Payback's relaxed, beautifully shot High Noon-approach than for Lone Justice's Miami Vice-style. But they're undeniably both honest-to-the-core, very impressing and highly entertaining action movies, straightly told, compelling stories about people one can relate to.If one ever wondered what movies like The Bourne-trilogy would look like without the enormous budgets: Lone Justice is the answer. And that is a good thing.

Good movies are original, some leave a message or touch you in a certain way, but sometimes you're not in the mood for that. I wanted something simple, no thinking just plain action when I watched this one. It started of good and was quite entertaining, so why a bad review. Well in the end the movie lost it's credibility. The storyline wasn't that cheesy at all, the action was not too special but overall good, acting was OK, so more than enough to satisfy my needs. But all got ruined because things happened that were over the top, and it left me with a bad feeling. They should have put a little more effort in making everything credible and would have gotten a 7 in the "no thinking just plain action" category. So in conclusion if you know you'll get irritated because things are happening that seem completely illogical: don't watch! otherwise I'd say go ahead...