{"id":7909,"date":"2024-10-30T23:25:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T03:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=7909"},"modified":"2024-10-30T23:25:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T03:25:33","slug":"steele-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/30\/steele-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Steele Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Steele Justice<\/strong> (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Atlantic\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, language, drug material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Boris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert Boris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Misha Segal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John M. Stephens\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 8, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Martin Kove, Sela Ward, Ronny Cox, Bernie Casey, Joseph Campanella, Soon-Tek Oh, Jan Gan Boyd, Robert Kim, Shannon Tweed, Sarah Douglas, Peter Kwong, David Froman, Al Leong, David Lander, Phil Fondacaro, Kevin Gage, The Desert Rose Band, Astrid Plane.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $1.3M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0There is no argument. The 80s were a great time for action movies. For movie geeks like me, there was nothing more gratifying than checking out the latest offerings from Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Norris and Bronson. There were also the one-off actioners like Black Moon Rising, Eye of the Tiger, Wanted Dead or Alive, Death Before Dishonor, Action Jackson and Steele Justice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The 1987 actioner stars Martin Kove in his first lead role. You know him best as villainous sensei Kreese in The Karate Kid. On TV, he played macho Detective Isbecki on Cagney & Lacey.\u00a0 It was supposed to launch his career as the next big action star, but it didn\u2019t quite work out that way. Audiences skipped Steele Justice<\/strong> en masse when it came out in spring \u201987. I guess they didn\u2019t want to see yet another action movie featuring a messed-up Vietnam vet. I, on the other hand, didn\u2019t care. If you know me, you know wild horses can\u2019t keep me away from violent action flicks like this.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Kove plays John Steele, a burned-out mess of an ex-cop who goes up against the Vietnamese Mafia (aka \u201cThe Black Tigers\u201d) after they execute his former partner\/best friend Lee (Kim, Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off) and his family in retaliation for interfering with their drug operations. He can\u2019t convince his former boss Captain Bennet (Cox, Beverly Hills Cop) to go after the man responsible, Kwan (Oh, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning), a Vietnamese general he first encountered at the end of the war when he stopped him from stealing $20 million in CIA gold. Everybody sees Kwan as a respected member of the Vietnamese community. Surprise, he\u2019s really NOT! Steele knows it, but nobody believes him. As such, he takes it on himself to take down Kwan and his entire gang while keeping the sole survivor of the massacre, teenage daughter Cami (Boyd, Assassination), safe from assassins looking to finish what Kwan\u2019s son (Kwong, Big Trouble in Little China) started.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Until recently, I hadn\u2019t seen Steele Justice<\/strong> since the 90s. Looking at it with wiser eyes, I realized how silly it all it is. It\u2019s one of those \u201cso bad it\u2019s great\u201d movies. It contains the usual 80s action movie clich\u00e9s like the thick-headed police superior, the training montage set to a cheesy rock song (\u201cFire with Fire\u201d by Hot Pursuit), the hero treating his own wound, the ex-wife (Ward, Nothing in Common) who stills loves her former husband even though she says otherwise and the dopey dialogue. There are some great goofy lines in Steele Justice<\/strong>. Here\u2019s a sampling:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe isn\u2019t being recruited. He\u2019s being unleashed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe war isn\u2019t over for you, it just changed locations.\u201d<\/p>\n

And how about this exchange:<\/p>\n

Kwan: \u201cThe only law is Black Tiger law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steele: \u201cAnd the only justice is me.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you NOT love dialogue like this? The line about \u201cbeing unleashed\u201d is just precious. Because it\u2019s the 80s, we also get a scene of a music video being filmed (\u201cYou\u2019re Not a Lover\u201d by Astral Plane). It\u2019s the usual New Wave-type song. Of course, it\u2019s interrupted by Kwan\u2019s men arriving on the scene with automatic weapons blazing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Then, of course, we have the final confrontation between Steele and Kwan. They fight it out ninja-style with swords. Kwan is clad in black while Steele dresses just like Rambo replete with ammo belt across his bare chest. We\u2019ve seen all of this before. What we\u2019ve never seen, however, is the unique explosive device used in the opening scene in Vietnam. It\u2019s a rat with a hand grenade strapped to its back. Who knew the nasty little buggers could be so useful?<\/p>\n

\u00a0As for the acting, what do you expect from a movie called Steele Justice<\/strong>? It\u2019s not like we\u2019re talking about On the Waterfront here. That being said, I\u2019ve seen better and worse than this. It\u2019s great to see Kove play a good guy. The problem is he isn\u2019t very convincing as a man still suffering the effects of a terrible war that ended more than a decade ago. He\u2019s a little better when he shifts into action hero mode. Still, he\u2019s easily outacted by his pet snake Three-Step so named for his poisonous bite. If bitten, the victim dies within three steps. Oh, possibly on loan from Cannon, makes a decent bad guy. You just love to hate him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The worst performance in Steele Justice<\/strong> comes from Boyd, an actress in her 20s playing a girl who can\u2019t be more than 15. She just can\u2019t act. The cool supporting cast includes Bernie Casey (Sharky\u2019s Machine) as the only cop on Steele\u2019s side, Joseph Campanella (Mannix) as Steele\u2019s former commanding officer in the war, Sarah Douglas (Superman II) as a bitchy DA and, in a bit of unlikely casting, Playboy Playmate Shannon Tweed (Hot Dog… The Movie) as a crime boss doing a drug deal with Kwan. Oh, and how can I forget 80s action mainstay Al Leong (Lethal Weapon) as one of Kwan\u2019s henchmen? He\u2019s always a welcome presence in this kind of movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0On a technical level, Steele Justice<\/strong> isn\u2019t what you\u2019d call a well-made movie. The editing is especially faulty. Check out the scene where Steele shows up at a Vietnamese pool hall looking for Kwan. One of the denizens delivers a kick to a sensitive region. We don\u2019t even see the kick. Oh yeah, Steele Justice <\/strong>is one of those action movies in which every Asian character knows kung fu. LOL! I love it! So what if it\u2019s not PC? Screw that! But I digress. The point I\u2019m trying to make is it doesn\u2019t possess the highest production values. It\u2019s a B-movie through and through to its crazy core.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Written and directed by Robert Boris (Oxford Blues), Steele Justice<\/strong> is the closest thing to a Cannon movie that doesn\u2019t bear the familiar logo. If I didn\u2019t already know, I could easily mistake it for a Golan-Globus production. I like this movie very much. It\u2019s a decent actioner and a fun bad movie. It\u2019s a good choice for a Saturday night flick with the guys. It\u2019d be a nifty candidate for the RiffTrax treatment as well. It may not be what Boris intended, but it\u2019s a nice mix of action and unintentional comedy. Movies like Steele Justice <\/strong>is one thing I miss about the 80s.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steele Justice (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Atlantic\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, language, drug material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Boris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert Boris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Misha Segal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John M. Stephens\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 8, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Martin Kove, Sela Ward, Ronny Cox, Bernie Casey, Joseph Campanella, Soon-Tek Oh, Jan Gan Boyd, Robert Kim, Shannon Tweed, Sarah Douglas, Peter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Steele-Justice-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7909"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7913,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7909\/revisions\/7913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}