Murder; rape; bullying; a mother's dominance; a father's back-turning; revenge; brown-nosing - just a few of the wonderful topics depicted in this movie. That might be reality, but, some of it is lost in the actors' reactions to these subjects. Or, perhaps they were TOLD how to react by the director. Anyway, LETHAL JUSTICE didn't quite hit the mark with me, although it DID evoke some of my appropriate emotional responses to these misbehaviors. The jist is that a bullying high school student rapes one of his teachers, but, the milktoast principal is intimidated by the boy's domineering mother and is too inactive to satisfy a group of the victim's co-workers. So, they take discipline into their own hands and, as a result, one of them is killed by a friend of the accused. Might appeal to those who get off on negativity and believe that violence begets violent justice.
3 Reviews
A lesson for juvenile delinquents
unclehugo14 September 2008
Warning: Spoilers
This low budget movie about criminal behavior of high school students and the provoked reaction of teachers shares the same theme with more expensive projects like Class of 1984 or Substitute, but is different in execution. It cannot boast any Hollywood stars and contains little action. It seems that Lethal Justice tries to be a psychological drama with some ingredients of a crime flick.Things start quite promising as two nasty boys with some truly dirty deeds on their minds interrupt a class of an attractive female teacher.One of those punks threatens kids in the classroom with a knife while his buddy manages to rape the unfortunate teacher. After the crime, they walk away with unbelievable self confidence. One of them,a rich brat named Teddy Johnson, counts on his mother,who happens to be an important figure in the town and usually sweeps problems caused by her rotten son under the rug. When other teachers find out what happened, they are naturally appalled, but the real shock is yet to come.Shortly after the police take Teddy away, his mother gets him out on bail and makes sure that the principal allows the charming young rapist to continue his studies at local high school. When several disgruntled teachers demand some radical changes, the cowardly principal keeps complaining about the immense pressure he's under. As a result,Teddy and a bunch of airheads who call themselves Brotherhood of Saint Cassian are free to intimidate one of the teachers and his family. This guy and a muscular teacher of physical education decide to take matters into their hands and set up a trap. One of them invites Teddy over for a chat about future college studies and the other one plays the role of an unknown attacker with a hood over his head. Teddy gets his lesson but is finally able to figure out who plotted the attack. Two of his friends ambush the P.E. teacher and despite his superior physical condition, they manage to kill him. Teddy kidnaps the other teacher's son and the final confrontation takes place in the local church. The avenging teacher and the delinquent strive for awhile, although Teddy makes no attempt to hurt the child. Finally, the young delinquent deliberately falls to his death. The finale is a letdown for all viewers who expect bloody demises of bad guys in similar movies... There are a few flashback scenes showing Teddy's playthings being stepped on by his mother (was this experience the root of all his emotional problems?) and several visions had by the teacher who imagines himself as a knight in medieval armor. One scene also depicts the death of Saint Cassian when the legend of this martyr is told by a priest. The image of ancient Romans in togas somehow doesn't fit in the movie.
Poorly put together
loza-124 August 2005
It could be argued that this film is something of a premonition of the Colombine massacre. A group of teenagers get together to commit a serious crime, but there the similarity ends.
The plot in itself, that a group of teachers get together to form a vilgilante squad to pay back a serious assault on a teacher, is a good one; unfortunately, it is not done very well. The script was poorly written. The reaction of the school principal to one of his staff being raped by a student is frankly unbelievable. Some of the acting among the teachers is bad. Very bad.
At the school I went to, if a student had stood in front of a class with a knife at a girl's throat while his mate raped a teacher in the closet, he would have quickly dropped the knife after the hardnuts had told him what would happen to him if he didn't. But the class just sat at their desks and did nothing. No. I don't think so. Real among adults maybe; but never among teenagers.
Nice try, film makers; but sorry, just not good enough.
The plot in itself, that a group of teachers get together to form a vilgilante squad to pay back a serious assault on a teacher, is a good one; unfortunately, it is not done very well. The script was poorly written. The reaction of the school principal to one of his staff being raped by a student is frankly unbelievable. Some of the acting among the teachers is bad. Very bad.
At the school I went to, if a student had stood in front of a class with a knife at a girl's throat while his mate raped a teacher in the closet, he would have quickly dropped the knife after the hardnuts had told him what would happen to him if he didn't. But the class just sat at their desks and did nothing. No. I don't think so. Real among adults maybe; but never among teenagers.
Nice try, film makers; but sorry, just not good enough.
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