I love a good western so much that I can even enjoy a fair to medium one. This one never rose to the lowest level. I also write for the stage so I recognize good writing. And directing. Let me list a few glaring shortcomings here: Writing. Directing. Sets. Make up. Costumes. Probably more. Everything seemed to be deficient. Perhaps the actors could have been good . . . but not when living with these problems. This production -for most involved- will probably be poisonous to their careers and for this I sympathize with them. One star. It goes downhill from there. During the credits at the end of "Justice", I noticed the names listed for the people in town and those who appeared as Army soldiers. It is entitled: TOWNSPEOPLE AND CALVERY. Suddenly I realized that my earlier, unflattering remarks were well deserved. Make it ½ star.

I kept my expectations low with this one and they were exceeded (and not in a good way). All I wanted was to be entertained and Justice failed to do even that. This film was a longest 1 hour and 32 minutes movie that I seen in recent memory. Like a trip to the oral surgeon, I couldn't wait for this to be over. I can forgive the movie for it's cliches, poor delivery and horrendous acting from most of the cast. But the lead actor Nathan Parsons was not only horrible, but most unconvincing and uncharismatic lead imaginable. He stunk it up worse than a 10 foot high pile of horse manure. Most of the cast was pretty bad and bland as well. The only actors that I recognized were Steven Lang( who was actually really good as the corrupt mayor) and Robert Carradine. Carradine didn't have enough screen time to make much of a difference to a film that is this bad. As a fan of westerns, I was expecting this to be easy to like and watch. Justice didn't check either of these boxes and if you haven't seen this movie, you are better suited watching something else.

Before I get going, I want to clear up a point made by at least a couple of other reviewers. I too was flummoxed for a moment when it looked like the letter produced by Marshal James McCord from his brother to Melissa Collins (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) should have been destroyed in the fire that burned down Preacher Thomas's (Jackson Rathbone) church. In what was a poorly developed plot device, the opening dialog taken from that letter looked like it was being written by Thomas right before the prostitute Miss Ginny (Ellen Hollman) came to him for recourse against outlaw Reb (John Lewis). But if you go back and watch the scene again, the preacher was actually writing in his journal at the time, and not that particular letter. Still, the impression it makes is that when the letter is eventually produced, one wonders how that was possible.

Well anyway, I think the movie's 4.1 IMDb rating is unwarranted on the low side, even if I agree with a lot of the negatives thrown at it by other reviewers. The thing is, if you judge it against the better Westerns that have come down the pike the last half century or so, it certainly doesn't stack up. But if you haven't seen that many to begin with, it's really not that bad. So the question is, should a movie be considered on it's own merits or lack thereof, or should it be measured against everything else someone has watched prior? I know, it's hard not to recall past preferences, but something to think about.

Probably the worst that can be said about the film is that it follows a fairly standard story line and there really aren't any surprises that are going to knock you out of your chair. And if you've seen enough of them, you can fairly predict the ending, even the clumsy manner in which the ex-Confederate Reb met his untimely end. I did have to chuckle a bit at that one; the cross atop the burned out church that finished off old Reb would have been better expected in a vampire movie but looked comically out of place here. I also had to do a double take when the Army cavalry rode in against the Mayor Pierce (Stephen Lang) bunch, along with Miss Melissa aboard her white horse and in a white dress. There had to be some kind of symbolism there about the white hat good guy arriving just in time to make the save, except this time it was a white bonnet good girl.

I guess my comments would actually put me in the same camp as most of the naysayers for this flick, but while watching, it didn't come across as being that bad. The cinematography was commendable and the players handled their roles well enough. I do think the picture could have had a grittier look, as the costuming and props looked a bit too new to have been part of the Old West. But what the heck, run any Western by me and I'll watch it just about any day.