Walking Tall: Lone Justice (2007)

Truly Dreadful Film

Such a frustrating disappointment

An unexpected masterpiece

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A second straight-to-DVD sequel following on from WALKING TALL, a remake of a '70s action flick starring Dwayne Johnson. Kevin Sorbo had already appeared in a first sequel, which I haven't seen, but this one has a stand-alone storyline which is unconnected to the previous movies.In essence, it's a typical low budget action movie, very similar to the kind of stuff that Steven Seagal is making these days. Kevin Sorbo is the just, upright hero who falls foul of a sinister drug lord and his gang of ruthless dealers. People are killed, Sorbo kicks a little ass (including during one of those ultra-predictable scenes in which he stumbles upon a convenience store robbery) and it all builds to a showdown between the good guys and bad.In terms of quality, it's very much par for the course. I like Sorbo, have liked him since the days of HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS, although it's not something I regularly watched. He seems like a genuinely nice guy, and that counts for a lot in my book. Of the supporting players, nobody really stands out, but the pace is good and there are some set-pieces that work, like the lengthy hospital interlude or a surprisingly nasty bit of torture.A big detraction from the film is the direction, which is absolutely horrible. Director Tripp Reed seems to equate style with shaking his camera all over the place, doing frenzied editing at all stages to boot. It doesn't work, it's an unnecessary detraction and really the only thing wrong with this movie; I can overlook the clichéd plot and characters, but not that direction. I cringe just thinking about it!

No, "Walking Tall: Lone Justice" doesn't resume where "Walking Tall: The Payback" ended. The major players in Dallas behind sleazy Howard Morris—Traxell Byrne (Jerry Cotton of "American Outlaws") and his right-hand henchman, Lou Dowdy (Todd Terry of "The Anarchist Cookbook")—got away scot-free. Whether this was a deliberate choice on the part of the filmmakers or a gaping hole is still debatable. Those two precipitated two of the most important events in "Walking Tall: The Payback." In a sense, they served as plot puppeteers. They pulled strings and got the hero and the villain to dance to their tune. Instead, the "Lone Justice" in this genuine sequel refers to a ruthless Hispanic drug-lord, Octavio Perez (newcomer Rodrigo De la Rosa), who the Feds are prosecuting as a racketeer. Producer Andrew Stevens has a cameo as Octavio's defense attorney. Tenacious FBI agent Kate Jenson (Yvette Nipar of "Vampire Klan") and her rebellious daughter Samantha (Haley Ramm of "X-Men: The Last Stand") return, and Nick is now Kate's boyfriend much to Samantha's chagrin. Nick's mother, Emma Prescott (Gail Cronauer of "Boys Don't Cry") is also back in this follow-up. The story takes place initially in Dallas and then the characters retreat to Nick's ranch in the sticks. When Nick isn't battling the villains, Samantha and he bond, and she considers him more of a friend than an enemy. FBI Agent Marcia Tunney (Elizabeth Barondes of "The Forsaken") emerges as the most interesting character."Walking Tall: Lone Justice" surpasses "Walking Tall: The Payback." The Joe Halpin & Brian Strasmann screenplay is a hundred times better than their previous effort, but it isn't without its flaws. Happily, "Walking Tall: Lone Justice" generated considerable suspense despite the clichés that clutter this familiar FBI versus the notorious drug felon narrative. This movie develops the theme of 'teamwork.' Furthermore, it features at least one example of judiciously placed foreshadowing. Pay attention to Nick and Samantha's discussion about firearms in the barn. The villains pose a greater challenge to our heroes than the previous ones did and these villains are rather nefarious. They don't mind amputating one FBI agents thumbs when she refuses to answer their questions. Our hero, Nick Prescott, finds himself in a tight situation or two. At one point, the villains have him tied up like Rambo was in "Rambo: First Blood, Part 2" when he was attached to mattress box springs and received jolts of electricity. Unfortunately, in spite of the superior script, director Trip Reed relies on annoying concertina zooms and frenetic jump cuts to not only intensify but also accelerate the action. The concertina zooms look jarring and the jump cuts that are designed to break up mundane actions are equally annoying. Neither of these cinematic devices adds anything to the story. On the other hand, they call attention to the lack of action.The action unfolds with Nick driving to Dallas to see his girlfriend. Nick stops off at a convenience store to pick up fresh flowers for Kate and ice cream for dessert. This scene contains its share of humor and drama. While Nick searches for the appropriate flavor of ice cream, an African-American gangsta and his Hispanic sidekick try to rob the cashier. They demand that the cashier open the safe. Nick throws a can that knocks the poor cashier out cold and then he single-handedly thwarts the two robbers. The Hispanic robber tries to use marital arts moves on our hero and Nick routinely slings bags of potato chips at him before he takes him down. Although Nick kept the criminals from robbing the store, he winds up in jail for hitting the cashier with a can. Nevertheless, Kate comes down and gets him out of jail. Samantha, who doesn't know Nick that well yet, sees him as a distraction for her mother who is too distracted by the demands of her job to pay her daughter the attention that her daughter deems suitable. Initially, tension mounts between Samantha and Nick. Meanwhile, Kate is part of a prosecution case against Octavio. The Feds are protecting a witness against the drug-lord who can send him to jail for good. Unlike the R-rated "Walking Tall: The Payback" with its objectionable rape scene that showed no nudity, "Walking Tall: Lone Justice" forefronts a nude scene with a Hispanic honey stripping and displaying her abundant breasts so that she can catch the eye of the witness. While he stands at the window in plain view against the wishes of his protector, Perez's henchmen relieve a bellboy of his duties and masquerade so they can get into the motel room and kill the witness. The Feds cannot prosecute Perez on a major charge, so they fall back to a money laundering charge and their witnesses are their own agents. Kate is one of them and she and her colleagues move to a safe house until they are to be called to testify. Somehow, the Perez gang learns about their whereabouts and wipes out everybody, killing Kate in the process, too. This is the first of a couple of genuine surprises that elevates "Walking Tall: Lone Justice" over its pathetic predecessor. The Perez gang watches Kate's funeral from a distance and they believe that their problems have been taken care of, but they are wrong, dead wrong.Saying anything else about this better than average sequel would ruin its impact. Kevin Sorbo looks comfortable in his role as Nick. The scene in the hospital when a fellow FBI agent and he try to avoid Perez's killers churns up considerable suspense. Nevertheless, the hole that plagues this tense scene is the absence of any hospital security guards. That Perez's killers—disguised as EMTs—could smuggle automatic weapons into the hospital is too much to ask. The last scene at Nick's ranch has problems, too. The convention in both "Walking Tall" movies is the heroes cannot play hardball the way that the villains can and remain heroic.

In Dallas, when the two prime witnesses against the drug-lord Octavio Perez (Rodrigo De la Rosa) are murdered by his gangsters in a safe-house, the testimony of the FBI agent Kate Jensen (Yvette Nipar) and three other agents become the only chance to keep the criminal in prison. They are lodged in another safe-house to wait for the trial, but the place is invaded by the criminals and the agents are executed. However, Kate is only wounded and her boyfriend Nick (Kevin Sorbo) believes there is a traitor in the agency and decides to bring her to his ranch in the country to protect her life with his reliable local friends."Walking Tall: Lone Justice" is a watchable and forgettable movie. Unfortunately the screenplay has many flaws, like for example how Kate could survive the attack of a cold blood hit-man (wouldn't he check whether she had died or not?); or the battle in the ranch without the arrival of the FBI (does it mean that Nick left Agent Marcia Tunney wounded with two severed fingers without calling for any help?); or the annoying Samantha that is not able to run from a fat guy with an injured leg but can use martial arts skill to fall him down. The fate of the injured agents and deputies are also never disclosed in the end. The frantic camera work and the edition are also awful, with a sort of "flashed images" of video-clip that irritated me. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Com as Próprias Mãos 3: Vingança Solitária" ("With the Own Hands 3: Lone Revenge")

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...