Extreme Justice (1993)

***SPOILERS*** It's when overly aggressive and hot headed cop Jeff Powers, Lou Diamond Phillips, is assigned top the exclusive SIS unite of the L.A police Department that he comes top realize that his brutal tactics were humanitarian actions compared to that outfit. The SIS, that sounds a lot like the mid-east terrorist organization ISIS, is involved in letting criminals commit the most horrendous crimes like murder & rape so that they can first get the goods on them and then blow them away without trial!It's Powers' partner and head of SIS Dan Vaughn, Scott Glenn,who orchestrates and sets up the targeted by letting them get away with literally bloody murder just so he can gun them down and keep them off the city streets, in their graves not prison cells, forever with no regards to their victims lives. How Vaughn & his boys get away with all this is by the internal affairs of the police department looking the other way by not doing anything to stop them. It's Powers who gets religious when his girlfriend L.A Chronicle reporter Kelly Daniels, Chelsea Fields, writes an expose on the death squad unit that if fact exposed him as one of its members!***SPOILERS*** Powers soon learns that he's on SIS's hit-list and the only way to save his as well as Kelly's behind is to come clean and expose SIS to the public, the cops were no help, before it can do any more damage! To him Kelly as well as the citizens of the city. With everything now out in the wash, in SIS being exposed by the L.A Chronicle, Powers comes to see the discredited but still on the L.A police force Dan Vaughn to tell him what he thinks of him and his gestapo like police organization. The ending isn't pretty with the usual cool as a cucumber Vaughn losing it and going completely insane in trying to murder the man , Jeff Powers, who fingered him. were told at the end of the movie that Vaughn ended up shot to death in one of his set-up raids that went terribly wrong for him. As for Powers he resigned from the LAPD and is now the head of internal affairs at the city of Detroit Police Department.

I got a real kick out of EXTREME JUSTICE, but I knew right off that Lou Diamond Phillips' and his girlfriend's characters were going to screw, it up, and sure enough; they DID! I liked the way the SIS squad got rid of criminals and saved the taxpayer's a ton of money in the process, but that stupid reporter just couldn't bear to see criminals not getting their rights coddled, and her liberal cop boyfriend just HAD to F**K it up, and that's just what they did! I just don't see how people, even movie characters, think like those fools did. Imagine a world where criminals actually got punished for the crimes they commit! Tell that to that idiot reporter and her equally idiotic cop boyfriend. A GREAT film, except for those two bozos!

Supposedly this film when it came out caused a bit of a stir and controversy by claiming that the idea behind the premise (an elite group of LAPD cops operating outside normal police guidelines that target high-profile criminals) was inspired by facts. The idea is scary (bystanders sometimes considered necessary sacrifices), but not particularly new as it did remind me of the Dirty Harry sequel; "Magnum Force". Although this death squad were not rogues operating outside the law as in that film; well that's what they like to think in what is an official unit. "Extreme Justice" might be audacious, but what occurs is by-the-book and formulaic. Director Mark L. Lester's mechanically brazen handling balances the tough action with the not-so black-and-white context. Some set-pieces are frenetic and raw, chucking in foot-chases, car-chases, bloody shootouts and Mark Irwin's sweeping photography. Sure it can be somewhat heavy-handed and morally bounded, but Lester keeps it reality bounded and it's the lead performance of Scott Glenn that sells it. He plays the leader of the S.I.S (Special Investigation Section) unit. Glenn's outstanding performance is lean, but also ballsy and cynical as you can see it beginning to affect him. Lou Diamond Phillips suitably plays the brash, but idealistically rough newcomer to the squad who actually begins to question the methods in how they go about getting the job done. Watching the two go at it fuelled some tension in between the set- ups after set-ups. There's good support from the likes of Yaphet Kotto, Chelsea Field, Richard Grove, William Lucking, L. Scott Caldwall and Ed Lauter as the police captain. Daniel Quinn and Andrew Divoff play some criminals. While also look for action stuntman Larry Holt and stuntman / actor Bob Minor."Trust me amigo. You're made for this work."

Fans of good action films will find "Extreme Justice" to their liking. What elevates this police special squad film above the competition, is the interesting and effective cast. You rarely see Scott Glenn, Lou Diamond Phillips, Ed Lauter, and Yaphet Kotto all together in one exciting movie. Ethical questions aside, "Extreme Justice" delivers the death squad justice in massive doses. If you are a fan of any of the above actors, then seek this one out, because you will not be disappointed. My only objection is that the female lead, Chelsea Field, playing a snoopy reporter, is rather bland, cold, and ultimately forgettable. - MERK