A new quarter means a new movie by my man Nicolas Cage. But we had high hopes for this one, not that we didn’t have high hopes for ‘Tresspass’, ‘Season of the Witch’, ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’, ‘Knowing’, ‘The Bad Lieutenant’ and so on, but this movie ‘Seeking Justice’ was directed by Roger Donaldson who helmed a movie I personally consider one of the great thrillers of all time, that being ‘No Way Out’. Of course that was twenty five years ago. Still, we had high hopes. Oh well. It’s not that ‘Seeking Justice’ let me down because it was perfunctory entertainment, but I guess it did let me down because it was just perfunctory entertainment.

Will Gerard (Cage) is just an average hard working high school teacher with an average supermodel / cellist wife in Laura (January Jones) and these crazy kids love each other. Then one day while leaving orchestra practice, some mean guy rapes Laura at gun point and life for the Gerard’s will never be the same.

So here’s Will, all mad and stuff stewing at the hospital, when he gets an odd visit from a mysterious guy going only by the name of Simon (Guy Pearce) who says he knows who raped his wife and he can handle this business for him. He mentions that Will could wait for the police to sort this thing out, only for this loser to be out on the street in about a year, or he could trust in Simon’s secret organization to take care of this. The only requirement is that Will have to do a favor for him when the time comes, no questions asked. Kind of like The Equalizer used to do back in the 80’s, but McCall always asked for nice innocuous favors. I don’t think Simon is going to ask for a nice favor.

Will was a little reticent at first, considering how crazy it sounds, but one look at his bruised and battered 100 pound wife in the hospital bed, and the next thing you know Will is choosing the Zig-Zag Bar. It’s complicated. A couple of scenes later the world is short one gun toting rapist and all is well in the world. Life goes on, Laura is a little skittish of course considering what she went through and against her husband’s wishes

got her some heat just in case. I’m thinking that gun is come in handy down the line. Regardless, the Gerard’s are happy, but we know that favor is going to rear its ugly head soon enough.

Guess what? Simon wants Will to kill some dude. I mean the dude they want killed is pedophilic baby raper and all, but Will isn’t the murdering type. The thing is, ‘no’ is not an option with these guys. A lot of stuff happens along the way, but eventually Will finds himself on the run from everybody. The cops want him for crimes against humanity and Simon’s organization just wants him dead, and in some cases the cops and Simon’s organization are one in the same. Plus all isn’t what it seems with this organization. No one to trust, no one to turn to, all alone in the big dirty city. Expect the expected in this one.

People, I don’t have the answers. I have no earthly idea why some movies are great, most are mediocre or run of the mill, and some are terrible. I think the terrible ones most people can pinpoint, but the mediocre ones… not so much. But I’m not the only one who doesn’t know the answers, because apparently nobody knows, for if they did know they would do better. Right? I’m of the opinion that ‘Taken’ was a great thriller, but why was it a great thriller? What was so different about ‘Taken’? I’m also of the opinion that ‘Seeking Justice’ is a completely mediocre thriller, but why? Just random thoughts.

Regardless, Roger Donaldson’s ‘Seeking Justice’, renamed from just ‘Justice’ from its European run for unknown reasons, is a completely mediocre, completely forgettable thriller. The launching point for this film is actually pretty nifty, a secret vigilante organization taking out the garbage, that’s gone out of control. That’s a good setup. But nothing particularly inventive or unique was done with this setup, just the same story of an average man facing astronomical odds to clear his name and save his damsel in distress amidst shootouts and car chases. The only thing remotely unique was the odd manner that was written to have the victims of violence agree to the vigilante terms, which involved buying a candy bar, which was strange, and the movie also had a weird catch phrase… The Hungry Rabbit Jumps… which I have no idea what that means, and was this movies original title before ‘Justice’ and ‘Seeking Justice’. True enough, ‘The Hungry Rabbit Jumps’ might’ve been a silly title for a movie, but at least it would’ve been a little more inventive than what the Action Movie Title Generator spit out.

The performances were good enough I suppose, but what this movie really needed was some of that Nic Cage manic energy. In fact, in retrospect making Nic the leader of the vigilante organization and Guy Pearce the poor schlub of a husband would’ve been a better casting move I think. That way Nic could’ve done his wild Nic Cage thing with the character of Simon which I bet would’ve been infinitely entertaining, and Guy Pearce being a better actor and all… despite the absence of the Academy hardware that Nic has… could’ve brought a little more texture to the character of Will. Just a thought. January… well… she sure is pretty.

It’s all well done and well presented this ‘Seeking Justice’, it’s just all so rudimentary and run of the mill, which is something we can get just about anywhere.