Justice

1998, vhs

Justice is a 1998 thriller set in Perth where Bobby (Marcus Graham) is an alcoholic homeless man who begrudgingly befriends teen runaway Kat (Tessa Moncreiff) who can't stand her mother Annie's (Kerry Armstrong) latest boyfriend. After 'saving' Annie from the beating from her boyfriend, Annie seeks him out when Kat runs away again to help find her, which he does but when he goes back to his spot drunk, he witnesses corrupt cop Blake (Simon Westaway) brutally kill an internal affairs cop that is investigating him and when Blake spots him, he decides to pin her murder on him. Bobby seeks refuge with Annie and Kat but after a manhunt, he hands himself in newly sober and freshly shaved which turns out to be a big mistake. An even bigger one when he decides to represent himself. Not helped by prison guards giving him alcohol to help stifle his abilities in court and a fuzzy drunken memory of what happened, Bobby looks certain to go down for the crime until..

Stock-standard courtroom thriller when all hope seems to be lost before a miraculous last minute hail mary saves the day. The plot is pretty silly and has the feel of a TV movie, I mean did nobody think to ask as to why a drunken homeless man would tie up and brutally murder an internal affairs cop in a calculated manner in an abandoned power station. Seems like a wild and unbelievable coincidence this would happen. The movie is helped by some good acting from Graham, Armstrong and the teen girl and Westaway plays a contemptible villain even when he blows his brains out immediately after being caught out in the court room. Some usual WA suspects in the cast and it's always good to see George Shevtsov turn up in something. If only the movie didn't feel like a movie of the week.

Justice is from a VHS rip and it's not too bad a source either, plus it's in widescreen.

Rosemarie Lenzo film clip (collages below)