One Man's Justice (1996)

***SPOILERS*** The usual 1990's action revenge flick made a bit more interesting with Brian "Boz" Bonsworth staring in it as tough but sensitive in that he feels that killing is bad, but someone's got to do it, US Army drill Sergent and martial arts expert John North. A dude that you don't mess around with; especially with those close to him in that's what a group of in house terrorist arms dealers do and end up paying for it big time.Lead by the guy with a ring in his nose dirty Federal Agent Karl Savak played by Bruce Payne who looks more like the famous, with his Samson or lion like mane, Fabio then a movie bad guy who are out to get the latest US military weaponry and sell it to this highest bidder regardless to who he's selling them to. Lead by one of Savak's goons the scuzzy looking Marcus, Jeff Kober, that while robbing a US Army supply truck killed North's wife and kidnapped his 6 year old daughter who later died from her wounds. North himself was badly wounded trying to negotiate their release soon, after two months recovers from his wounds, which to him were nothing but a few bee stings, and is out for revenge. Even though he's really against violence in this case he makes an exception and by the time the movie is over North ends up wiping out both Savak's as well as his rival Dexter Kane's, M.C Hammer, drug and weapon trafficking rings.***SPOILERS*** despite trying to show some sensitivity in his role as tough Sgt. North The "Boz" only excels in the action scenes that he's in which make the film worth watching in the first place. The "Boz" or Sgt. North is also given a young street-wise sidekick 12 year old Mikey Adams, DeJuan Guy,who he tries to straighten out in keeping him from becoming a future gang banger. But his actions, that are anything but peaceful, doesn't help any is showing Mikey how to change his mind. It's in his final slug fest with Savak that North/The Boz pulls his punches in not trying to do him in just for the sake of Mikey-whom Savak is holding hostage- and almost gets killed by doing it. But Savak saves the day for North in his eagerness to finish him off, by pushing him off a 20 story building, and ends up doing himself in instead.

Sgt. John North (The Boz) is an Army drill instructor and close-combat specialist. But he also has a sensitive side. He loves his young daughter and wife and would do anything for them. When his loved ones are tragically murdered by professional scumbag Marcus (Kober) and North is put into a coma by sustaining multiple bullet wounds, his life spirals out of control. Upon regaining his consciousness, he devotes his life to revenge. As he climbs up the baddie food chain, he finds Karl Savak (Payne), a long-haired, nose-ringed corrupt Federal Agent, and the villain of all villains this century, M.C. Hammer. Actually he has the classic bad-guy name of Dexter Kane, but it's still, of course, the Hammer we all know and love. Gumming up the works of North's revenge mission is 12-year old tot Mikey (Guy) who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the presence of Mikey, will North achieve his mission, especially with the odds stacked against him? Here's some imagery for you: a bowl of hearty soup with a fly in it. A rich, creamy cheesecake with a cockroach on it. A succulent deluxe lobster with a rat on it. All potentially lovely food items, but you cannot eat around the fly, cockroach or rat. One Man's Justice (or totally badass alternate title One Tough Bastard) is like that. All the scenes with The Boz are gold. The fight scenes are fun, the baddies are nice and bad, and The Boz is on a revenge mission in L.A. All seems right with the world. But when are filmmakers going to learn that red-blooded males who watch action movies don't want to see precocious brats preventing roided-up meatheads from exacting brutal, violent revenge? To put it another way: we hate when kids play too prominent a role in action movies. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, as Sarah Dampf, Smith, Lisa Boynton, and the cast of Double Blast (1994) prove, kids aren't ALWAYS bad. But the presence of the Mikey character here prevents One Man's Justice from being all it can be, much like Sgt. John North would want you to be in the Army.So, while they should have edited out Mikey and added some more fights, car chases or even a test pattern, let's leave that aside for a moment. One Man's Justice is classic 90's. That's a good thing, by the way. The cast is excellent, with Boz doing a stellar job, plus favorites Kober, playing a bad guy as always (you know he's evil because he wears a leather vest), Bruce Payne hairing it up, and a rare dark-haired Neal McDonough making a brief appearance. We've also got Robert LaSardo in the tattoo parlor fight sequence, and, in what has to be a cinematic first, both M.C. Gainey and M.C. Hammer together in the same movie. M.C. Hammer is even billed as "Hammer", perhaps so he wouldn't be confused with the rap career of Gainey. While in The Peacekeeper (1997), Montel Williams teamed up with Dolph, here, The Boz and Hammer are at odds. We'll give you a moment to unravel that last sentence. Mr. Hammer gives us his full acting range, even showing us sad Hammer, or, as it's known, Sammer.The 90's-ness of it all comes through insofar as all the time Mikey is involved, the movie devolves into a cross between Cop and a Half (1993) and one of those classic anti-drug PSA's from back then. At any moment you think some drugged-up bugs are going to come out from behind a wall. Then it swerves into Homie Movie territory, but Jeff Kober is the lead homie. It's all very confusing. It tries to be relevant, commenting on the trend of mugging people for their sneakers. And the fact that Mikey looks like Mac Dad from Kris Kross firmly places this movie in its 90's place and time. The soundtrack, in the relevant places, features rap from UGK and Kool Moe Dee.The original North (1994), John North is a man you can believe in. Fun fact about Brian Bosworth's career: much like how Tony Danza strictly only plays guys named Tony, Bosworth mainly plays guys named John. In Stone Cold (1991), he was John Stone, in Blackout (1996), he was John Gray, in the TV series Lawless, he was, awesomely enough, John Lawless, and of course today we have John North. One Man's Justice is perhaps the second-ultimate Boz movie, after Stone Cold of course. He was born to be in B-grade action product, and you can tell from the many training sequences that this is truly in his wheelhouse. The movie has some of our favorite clichés, such as when, during the climax, the baddie says the hero's name many times, and the all-time classic "you just couldn't let it go, could you?" speech.We loved all the non-Mikey scenes in this movie. His presence is just too prevalent and inappropriate here. I mean honestly, what is this, One Tot's Justice? But just as you cannot eat around the offending vermin in your food, we can't just watch around Mikey. Your enjoyment level of this movie will depend on your tolerance for children in your action movies.

Found on NETFLIX-had so many of my fave 'character actors': Bruce Payne, (WARLOCK 3, CHARMED, SWITCH), Jeff Kober, (everyone's fave bad guy!), MC Hammer, Neal McDonough (Desperate Housewives, TIMELINE, BOOMTOWN,) Robert LaSardo (Nip/Tuck, General Hospital) among others, just had to watch! Stayed interested; well paced. Though I still can't understand how Brian Bosworth ever became a movie actor, this is one of his 'better' roles and very believable. Don't agree with the goof-looks like one side of the windows exploded, then the others, which would make sense. Not too much blood, though lots of guns and kicks. If you like these guys, well worth the 90+ minutes!

I love this film. Yes its crap but its brilliant at the same time. This is due to an excellent, camp and totally over the top performance by Bruce Payne. He takes the character of Savak to a totally new level by being ruthless, daring and funny at the same time. The bit where he throws his burger meal over marcus and screams 'horse-sh*t' at him is pure class. So is the bit in the drug dealers den 'tsk tsk' and 'ive got the guns'. It seems that Bruce Payne has the knack of taking psycho characters and turning them into something complicated (such as he did with Charles Raine in Passenger 57). I thought the long blond hair and the nose rings really added some presence to the character of Savak in this film, although how plausible it would be to have a CIA / FBI agent looking as he does, I really don't know. Great escapism - 10/10.