Judge and Jury (1997)

Pretty Good

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Coming late to the party after such films like "The Horror Show", "Shocker" and "The First Power". The murky supernatural action "Judge and Jury" follows almost the same formula of a convicted criminal coming back from the grave after being sent to the electric chair. Now Joseph Meeker is seeking vengeance against those who put him there and also involved in the murder of his girlfriend during the hold-up. He has his eyes on former pro-footballer Michael Silvano and his family, as he believes that's the man responsible for his girlfriend's death. In all it's trashy and outrageous with an extremely animated live-wire performance from David Keith as the vengeful spirit who likes to dress up in costumes. You know the Freddy Kruger influenced villain…. Still I didn't find anything menacing about his performance, it was more clownish and in which case he does dress up as one. The lame brain plot has very little to it (protagonist being pursued by a spirit while trying to protect his family) and feels straight-forward (chuck in the usual family drama and turmoil with our protagonist haunted by the traumatic experience), but it doesn't hide the fact there's numerous inconsistencies in the writing (mainly surrounding the villain) and the ending is somewhat a whimper. However it does keep a quick pace, throws up plenty of action sequences with bombastic stunt-work (surprisingly some moments do impress for such a production) and the script can have rapid tongue. The performances are reasonable. Martin Kove has an unintentionally goofy presence to him as the guy who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and must battle the spirit. Cult actor Paul Koslo shows up looking all weathered as the cop who put away Meeker and Kelly Perine is another sort of comic relief who gets paired up with Kove with some amusing interplay. Laura Johnson and Thomas Ian Nicholas (of "American Pie" fame) play the Silvano family. Director John Eyres is the man behind the project and you know what you would get looking at his flimography… low-grade and plain-looking, but there's a certain liveliness and gritty kick to the b-material that makes the mayhem entertaining. Oh and don't forget the slow motion. "I believe Joseph Meeker is dead"!

Before I begin, let me get something off my chest: I'm a huge fan of John Eyres' first film PROJECT: SHADOWCHASER. The film, a B-grade cross of both THE TERMINATOR & DIE HARD, may not be the work of a cinematic genius, but is a hugely entertaining action film that became a cult hit (& spawned two sequels & a spin off).Judge and Jury begins with Joseph Meeker, a convicted killer who was sent to Death Row following his capture after the so-called "Bloody Shootout" (which seems like a poor name for a killing spree – Meeker kills three people while trying to rob a convenience store), being led to the electric chair. There is an amusing scene where Meeker talks to the priest about living for sex but meeting his one true love (who was killed during the shootout), expressing his revenge for the person who killed her – Michael Silvano, a washed-up football star who spends his days watching his son Alex practicing football with his high school team (and ends up harassing his son's coach). But once executed, Meeker returns as a revenant (or as Kelly Perine calls "a hamburger without the fries"), whose sole aim is to get his revenge, which basically means making Silvano's life a misery.Let me point out the fact that Judge and Jury is not a true horror film. It is a supernatural action film, with Meeker chasing Silvano, using his ability to change form (which amounts to David Keith dressing up as everything from an Elvis impersonator, a French chef (with an accent as bad as his moustache), a drag queen, a clown & a stand-up comedian), a shotgun which fires explosive rounds & an invulnerability to death (although that doesn't stop Martin Kove from shooting Keith with a Desert Eagle), to pay Silvano back for killing Meeker's wife.Director John Eyres does not seem interested in characterisations, instead focusing solely on action scenes, which the film has plenty of. But that is the film's main flaw, since there's nothing to connect the action scenes together. The acting is surprisingly good, with Keith delivering the best performance, supported ably by Kove, as well as Paul Koslo, who plays the washed-up cop quite well. Kelly Perine is annoying as the cabbie who tries to help but makes the situation worse.

Okay, so what we have here is a nice little B-movie with some ridiculous casting-decisions, an over-the-top-of-the-top bad guy who likes cross-dressing and looking like a bozo (literally), and a pre-fame Thomas Ian Nicholas (from "American Pie") with long wavy hair and cool posters of Martin Kove on his bedroom wall (where can I get those??)! That kid is so rad, apart from the fact that Martin Kove in this movie plays his dad! I mean, seriously.. who the hell has a GIANT poster of their own DAD hanging on the wall?? But anyway, he tears it down after his parents has an argument, so it's a good plot-piece (i.e. the kid losing faith in his dad, and thus removes every idolizing image he has of him in his room).Anyways, back to the plot: David Keith (NOT to be mistaken by Keith David, who is one helluva cool guy) plays this maniacal homicidal lunatic biker-type, Joseph Meeker, who gets arrested during a stick-up, where his girlfriend Mary (played by Patricia Scanlon, who we all know from her other movies where she plays memorable parts like "Woman from Brooklyn", "Cocktail Waitress" and "Stoned Customer") accidentally gets killed, after they both needlessly had offed a few people themselves.So after getting arrested by Detective Lockhart (Paul Koslo, The Omega Man, Joe Kidd, etc.), he wows revenge from beyond the grave on all those who captured him and killed his girlfriend - i.e. Detective Lockhart and family-man/football-star Michael Silvano, who is played the ever-so-lovable Martin Kove, who we all know as the bad-ass John Kreese from the "Karate Kid"-movies, as well as from "Rambo II" and "Death Race 2000", where he also played bad-ass "shoot-first, think later"-type characters.Okay, so after Meeker's execution, where he talked about "getting some pussy" to a priest and did other obscene things, he somehow returns from the dead, and haunts Silvano's family, chasing him and his buddies around for about 3/4 of the movie. Oh yeah, somehow Meeker has a shotgun which shoots exploding fireballs (that for some reason have no effect on whoever gets hit by them)! And he wears about a dozen of ridiculously redundant costumes while making quite a few memorable quotes (none of which have been added here yet - and I don't really feel like it at the moment)..Highlight cameos: Kelly Perine plays this unfortunate homeless cab-driver who gets hijacked by Silvano, and then decides to tag along for the rest of the movie (big mistake), and also a short cameo by the fantastic Bob Minor (who always plays this big ass-kicking black dude) as a pool-playing biker, who happens to hang around in the wrong bar at the wrong time.Verdict: Guilty of the charges of being a hilariously bad B-movie, full of ridiculous dialogue and tons of badly scripted (and filmed) scenes, which should make the viewer roll on the floor laughing, rather than cowering behind the sofa, which was probably intended by the makers of this movie. Good bad stuff. 6/10

So much for JUDGE AND JURY, which lives up to its nonsense title. What good is there? The lighting is terribly foggy! Another horror movie you ask? Well, that's perfectly explainable. David Keith actually does pretty good at disguising clowns, chefs, and other shenanigans while being the killer who escaped death row. But overall, despite some new twists, it's reasonably stupid. Unapix has been putting out some ludicrous productions recently, and this one only means so much. We, the jury, find this film guilty for its indecent exposure to many of us sitting around believing it's a total waste of our time!