Steele Justice based on the title alone should’ve made for a fun and entertaining action schlock and while there were elements, there wasn’t enough to make this a worthwhile viewing especially with a lead that had no personality.
Steele Justice
(1987)
Genre(s): Action, Crime
Kino Lorber| R – 97 min. – $24.95 | July 12, 2022
Date Published: 07/14/2022 | Author: The Movieman
|
|
|||||||||||
Kino Lorber provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2¼/5 |
|
Plot Synopsis: John Steele (MARTIN KOVE) is a battle-hardened, spirit-scarred Vietnam vet unable to find his niche in mainstream America. But when Southern California’s drug-running Vietnamese Mafia murders his best friend, Steele finds a new war to fight – and unleashes an action-packed array of blazing firepower and deadly finesse.
Quick Hit Review: Steele Justice was just one of a slew of hackey, cheesy action flicks to come out of the 1980s, attempts at emulating the success of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger with a number of knock-off action stars, with all due respect to Martin Kove who was great antagonist in the Karate Kid franchise but as a lead action hero… not so much. While the title itself is great, the movie is fairly bland as a whole. Some of the action was okay I guess but the stunt chorography was lackluster and you have Kove, who shows very little personality, playing a cardboard cutout character. The relationship with the female lead, Sela Ward playing Steele’s ex-wife, was underdeveloped (not that they had any chemistry). You also have Ronny Cox playing a bit of a douchier version of the captain character from Beverly Hills Cop and a thin villain in Soon-Teck Oh who was just plain ordinary.
It’s pretty obvious that Steele Justice was a quick cash grab, attempting to ride the coattails of Commando (1985) and First Blood (1982), along with Kove from The Karate Kid (1984), made for a forgettable experience that really doesn’t work in any facet and the best I can say it was a watchable time-waster, never quite boring to tune completely out but not exciting enough to find it terribly entertaining. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2/5 |
|
This release comes with a matted slip cover. Features include an Audio Commentary with Star Martin Kove and Writer/Director Robert Boris as well as the film’s Theatrical Trailer. |
VIDEO – 3¾/5 |
| Steele Justice is re-released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber (they released one back in 2016), presented in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition. No real surprise that this obscure 1980s action-schlock film wouldn’t be given any sort of restoration, so this one doesn’t look half bad. Detail on this looks fairly sharp throughout and colors appear to have good balance to them. On the downside, the transfer is littered with dust marks, dirt and some film damage. |
AUDIO – 3¼/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which I felt was a bit lackluster. While dialogue did come across well enough with fine clarity. However, the numerous action sequences were flat and didn’t reverberate even when taking into account that it’s a stereo track from a movie going on 35 years. |
OVERALL – 2½/5 |
|
Steele Justice based on the title alone should’ve made for a fun and entertaining action schlock and while there were elements, there wasn’t enough to make this a worthwhile viewing especially with a lead that had no personality. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.