Hard Justice (1995) Review

“Hard Justice” Poster

Director: Greg Yaitanes
Cast: David Bradley, Charles Napier, Yuji Okumoto, Clabe Hartley, Benita Andre, Adam Clark, John Koyama, Vernon Wells, Doug Kruse, Harold Cannon, Arthur Roberts, Jim Maniaci, William S. Wong
Running Time: 88 min. 

By Paul Bramhall 

If you’re a fan of U.S. DTV action, when the Nu Image logo appears onscreen at the beginning of a production, you usually know you’re in for a good time. At best you’ll get plenty of explosions, hard hitting fight scenes, and some crazy stunts (especially in the 90’s, when they rivalled PM Entertainment in the same space), at worse you’ll get 90 minutes of DTV comfort food. Over the years Nu Image has been home to the likes of Dolph Lundgren (Command Performance), Jean Claude Van Damme (Until Death), Chuck Norris (Forest Warrior), Jason Statham (The Mechanic), Steven Seagal (Submerged), and even Scott Adkins (Ninja). A respectable roll call of modern action stars before the superhero roster took over our screens, accompanied by productions that often felt like the 1980’s era of heroic machismo had never gone out of fashion.

Another DTV star who got to join the Nu Image stable was David Bradley. Making his debut by headlining 1989’s American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt (he’d go on to also star in the 4^th and 5^th entries), Bradley was one of those DTV action stars who eventually slipped through the cracks of the 90’s era DTV boom. Sporting a muscular physique and trained in aikido, Bradley was an easy sell on paper – a potent mix of Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal in one package. However in front of the camera it was a different story, as he lacked both the charisma of Van Damme (which often helped smooth over some of the Muscles from Brussels ropier acting performances) and the intensity of Seagal’s portrayal of aikido onscreen. Despite being given starring status from the get-go, a position he’d maintain throughout the 14 movies he’d feature in, less than 10 years after his debut he’d fade out, his swan song being the 1997 Jalal Merhi flick Crisis.

There is some gold amongst his filmography though, and I’d put the case forward for 1995’s Hard Justice being one of them. The directorial debut of Greg Yaitanes, while a look at his filmography today may give the impression he’s always been a TV director-for-hire (including an episode of Sammo Hung’s Martial Law), keep scrolling and you’ll discover he started his career helming a couple of DTV actioners. The other came in the form of 1997’s Double Tap, but there’s a healthy argument to say that one’s more of a crime thriller than an action movie. At least, it’s a healthy argument when compared to his debut, which becomes clear from the first couple of minutes that Yaitanes is a massive fan of John Woo. In retrospect, even the title is an indicator – in 1992 Woo gave us Hard Boiled, in 1993 he offered up Hard Target, so it figures that in 1995 Yaitanes decided to make his own contribution with Hard Justice.

In the opening scene we see Bradley (or at least, we see his stunt double) rappel from a helicopter, smashing straight through a rooftop window into a warehouse where a drug deal is going down between 2 sides, much like Chow Yun Fat’s Tequila did in Hard Boiled. He’s even decked out just like him, down to the bullet belt around his shoulder, as the scene quickly escalates into an extended bout of double fisted handgun action to apprehend a drug dealer played by Yuji Okumoto (The Paper Tigers, American Yakuza). What ensues is basically a ‘Hard Boiled Greatest Hits Collection’, as guns are fired while diving through the air in slow motion, sliding across the floor on a dolly, and dodging explosions.

It’s easy to call it derivative, but if you’re going to be derivative of any action movie, then it’s impossible to complain too much when the movie is Hard Boiled. Yaitanes clearly only had the one warehouse to go crazy in, and he certainly makes the most of it, throwing logic to the wind for the sake of making things go boom. The perfect example being when Okumoto throws a bag full of grenades under a row of cars. Sure, logic dictates that all the grenades should go off at the same time, but for the sake of movie magic, instead we get Bradley’s stunt double running over the car roofs as each one explodes behind him, clearly riffing on Chow Yun Fat’s corridor explosion run with the baby from Woo’s masterpiece. The fact that the scene throws in a moment when Bradley and Okumoto face off by pointing a gun at each other’s head is practically a given (and was also used in the poster for most territories it was released in!).

After an opening that puts many DTV action movie climaxes to shame, Hard Justice settles down into a prison flick, dropping the Hard Boiled influence, and instead feeling like a DTV take on Jean Claude Van Damme’s Death Warrant. Learning that his partner who was in prison undercover has been murdered, Bradley takes his place to get to the bottom of his death. A ruthless Vietnam vet prison warden played by Charles Napier (Rambo: First Blood Part 2, 3 Ninjas: Knuckle Up) and his head guard, played by fight choreographer Alon Stivi (Mercenary), don’t make things easy though, and audiences may be left wondering what the opening has to do with any of this. Thankfully it becomes clear when Okumoto turns up as a transferee, and Bradley realises his cover is going to be blown once their paths cross, putting his life in danger and risking never getting to the bottom of why his partner was murdered.

The prison setting places Hard Justice squarely into run of the mill DTV territory, as Bradley bonds with his tough as nails cellmate, played by Jim Maniaci (Cyber Tracker, The Rock), after the pair throw down against each other. In a classic example of the kind of dialogue you can expect to find in Hard Justice, after realising they’re evenly matched Maniaci tells Bradley “You play a heavy game my man”, to which Bradley responds, “It’s a heavy world.” The mid-section mostly consists of Bradley getting into frequent fights while behind bars, including against the likes of 90’s DTV action fodder regulars John Koyama (The Perfect Weapon) and William S. Wong (Steel Justice). The fight scenes succeed at showing off Bradley’s skills in aikido and tai-chi, but they miss that certain “oomph” factor that the more defensive martial arts tend to require when transferred to the screen.

Thankfully Charles Napier’s scenery chewing prison warden keeps things entertaining, and by the time he decides to bring a prison riot under control by brandishing a machine gun in each hand and letting the bullets fly, he easily walks away with Hard Justice’s most memorable performance. Luckily for the audience Yaitanes had the foresight to leave enough budget for a big bang finale that moves beyond the prison walls, successfully recapturing the magic of the opening scenes. Offering up one of my favorite 90’s action movie tropes of dangling off a helicopter, here a trio of stunt coordinators consisting of J.P. Romano (White Cargo), Eric Mansker (Bounty Tracker), and Mechael John Serna opt to go one better, with Bradley also having to fend off an attacker who’s similarly dangling off.

Eventually transitioning into a dose of vehicular mayhem on the roads as Bradley chases down Okumoto to an explosive conclusion, it’s a closing reel that ticks all the boxes of what you could want from a slice of 90’s DTV action. Perhaps more than that though, it’s movies like Hard Justice that act as a reminder that, while in 2025 we may gasp at the sight to Tom Cruise dangling off a plane for real, back then these kinds of stunts were what any self-respecting action movie was expected to deliver (and a DTV one at that!).

Despite Bradley’s relative lack of screen presence, here he’s never too far away from having to fend himself from an attack behind bars, find an excuse to jump through the air in slow motion, or holding on for dear life several hundred feet up. While there were plenty of other American DTV flicks in the mid-90’s that took their inspiration from John Woo’s Hong Kong masterpieces (check out 1993’s Joshua Tree for another worthy effort!), Hard Justice stands out from the pack thanks to its commitment to its explosive action beats, brisk pacing, and a scenery chewing Charles Napier. Well worth checking out.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6.5/10