just cause - by the mellow<hr>
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<DT>just cause.
<DD>everybody on scaa is saying just cause, damn! well damned if it is and damned if it isn't. the kind of movie that could only work in america, a manipulative thriller about manipulations and suspicions and the ultimate violation. you probably couldn't pick a richer metaphor than the evil that men do and the suspicions and emotions that drive them to evil or to justice and how bent they get in those pursuits. and to attempt such a tale in 90s brutality and in racial colors is indeed a noble task. our filmmaker friends are to be commended for their attempt. but, they bit off more than they could chew and finally leave us with a fast paced flick that's just too fast. somewhere between action and drama, this film takes a first rate cast and shoehorns them into a twisted scenario which relies too heavily on the very stereotypes.. aww i'm starting to sound like leonard maltin. let's get to the details.
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<DT>blair the molester.
<DD>the odd thang is that i still cant, even after seeing this flick, imagine blair underwood as a killer. that's because blair underwood doesn't effectively become the character he plays, nor do most of the others. a script and direction failing.  when the mellow can't remember character names, it's the first sign of doom. the script and character development in this flick was about as well thought out as michael huffington's california senatorial campaign, which is to say sophisticatingly shallow. i hope the film company didn't spend as much money. 
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<DT>liar!
<DD>ed harris has been one of my favorite actors since the abyss, and since i didn't care to watch him make an honest woman out of melanie griffith i'm glad they finally put his astronaut shaped head into a role with (rotten, maggot infested) meat. halfway to hannibal lector, ed's character spits without spitting and confronts an absolutely alabaster sean connery in jail with the deep wisdom of the killer. sean's poo butt ass just sits there. `maybe my lies tell you more than my truths'. oh brother. delivered with some feeling, this could have been a crux of the whole film, but the filmmakers leave it to our fertile racial reasoning for all that `depth'.
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<DT>bad cop, bad cop
<DD>nothing feels better that seeing cops screw up. especially if you live in the cynical times we do. what a way to nail us to the floor. get that white cop beating on that black boy (wearing suspenders and no shirt, no less). weren't we seeing south africa, weren't we seeing los angeles? weren't we just expecting lil' old blair to say, ok my name is toby? a-plus guys. you suckered me big time. i'm waiting to see this `taney' character show up and sure enough here he comes. oops! black man - with the noriega crater-face talkin' bout pretty niggers. i heard that one before. hit me like a pair of nunchucks back in 1973 when the boys in the hood were always hard, and the uglier the harder. yep yep, this is going to be good. i'm suspicious like the big dog. you're gonna get yours coppers...
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<DT>what are you doing at my house?
<DD>my boy fishburn has a way with a cigar that out roscoe p. coletranes jacky gleason. it is an undeniable flair that gives this method man the credibility of justice that's just a little too personal for us citified folks. but don't we all like just a little maddog behind the badge? don't know, i'm reasoning with stereotypes just like they want me to. but the big fish managed to squirm quite convincingly when connery found out that his daughter and the first murderee were best friends - that they actually lived together. hmmm i said. this gets nice. now who is the killer?
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<DT>it has your name on it.
<DD>speaking of manipulation, doesn't it seem just a bit odd that, having masterminded this entire plot to sucker in those shit eating liberal whites that blair doesn't gloat just a little? why oh why was i not treated to a sinister laugh a la simon phoenix? but no.. blair's character has to bug his eyes out and talk about his lusty desire for the tender flesh of young white girls. which, for a brute of this character's dimensions is to be expected, but damn. you don't need to go through all that trouble of outsmarting a couple harvard lawyers, a police department and the evidence room of your prison just to slice and dice a junior barbie. or are they trying to tell us something? it seems to me that blair's character, the cornell would be, driven by his thirst for revenge would *never* have offered to let sean connery die first. he would have violated miss thang in the most dramatic fashion in front of their faces *after* delivering the speech he had been waiting eight years to say. this is what would have made the movie great, something like the incredible dr. phibes. and certainly more worthy of lectoresque legend. alas, blair was played like a typical light meat junky dropout, leaving us with ed harris who delivers the incarnation of reflective evil instead of blair who's movie this should have been.
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<DT>crusader rabbit.
<DD>as for playing dupe, connery does a fairly good job, yet still manages, just like he did in rising sun, to teach black police officers how to *really* investigate a crime. please, somebody get that tired shit out of my movies. they should have cast james spader. at least he wouldn't have settled for the okeydoke character development. actually maybe george plimpton might have done better, with a crusading righteousness. but connery does this whole deal to assuage his troubled academic soul. how pithy. the problem is that he doesn't even get into the chase. he shows no enthusiasm. he just walks his old tired ass around the town and bumps into typical this and typical that. where is his gut? how does he change? and in the end he defends nothing more than his own family, something any idiot would do. for a lead character, that's not much especially given the situation. you know who did this much better? the father in `the river wild'. 
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<DT>i'd love to party but i have an appointment.
<DD>i started to come apart at the seams about the same time the film did. that was party time. as soon as all these goofs start congratulating themselves, i'm thinking to myself, this movie is ending too quickly. and of course the pace is off unless there are further manipulations. the problem is that it was never the script of the characters which made me suspicious, they lacked the depth for that, but it was the error in the formula that made me suspicious. the good guys are not supposed to celebrate so soon. of course by the time connery gets handed the cordless out on the patio, im already throwing popcorn. by this time i was hoping it was the grandmother...
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<DT>granada, marquis what's the difference?
<DD>(fatal plot manipulation. sorry guys. the coen brothers you aint.)
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<DT>just cause
<DD>just cause somebody made the movie don't mean the subject's dead. treated, but not cured. next time give us something we can think about, but thank you for giving us something we can feel. 
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