B-Movie Marathon: Twisted Justice

Troma Entertainment's 1989 future-cop extravaganza, Twisted Justice is first up in my B-Movie Marathon this weekend. Written, directed and staring David Heavener as James Tucker, the gun-toting, onsie-wearing futurecop with a bad attitude and a five o'clock shadow. Also staring Shannon Tweed, Erik Estrada and former NFL superstar Jim Brown, Twisted Justice delivers exactly the kind of flashy excitement that is promised on the box-cover.

So, its the year 2020 in Los Angeles and guns have become so dangerous that cops can't even use them, but James Tucker doesn't care about laws that limit his ability to kick freaky-criminals to the ground before he shoots them with his homemade "hand cannon." Also, criminals in the future mostly enjoy attacking women and mutilating them with knives and shit before they kill them. This really pisses off Tucker, but he feels reigned in by Commander Erik Estrada, who lectures him about how using his gun is bad for PR. This allows Tucker to act like a standoff-ish weirdo, especially to the foxy-but-toned-down-for-effect district attorney.

Like a few other B-Movies slated to air in this weekend's marathon, the antihero protagonist displays some quirky / borderline antisocial behavior in his home life. See, Tucker is filthy, lives with a pet rat and is continually accused of smelling badly (something which probably isn't aided by the fact that he wears stained and dirty looking one-piece long underwear the entire movie. Like, under his clothes and when he's sleeping).

The plot is a bit hard to follow. Something about drugs and this creepy-looking maniac guy whose been attacking women. Then Shannon Tweed shows up, and I really had trouble keeping track of what was going on after that. The movie has a pretty-good-for-a-b-movie car chase, a few explosions and some pretty decent (read: giant squib packs) old-school f/x. Also in the future theres like softcore POV pornography on a channel opposite It's A Wonderful Life, which is fairly unsettling when you sit down and think about that.

Twisted Justice is low budget and it shows. But thats not to say that its laden with any obvious mistakes, its just campy and fun. Much higher production value than Redneck Zombies, another Troma flick, which looks like it was shot without a DP, gaffers, or any porduction staff besides a camera operator and some sort of art department pa to throw together myraid crappy and uneccessary special effects.

All in all, Twisted Justice was a worthwhile B-Movie experience--which I wouldn't have been able to view without my glorious Roku Player.

Redneck Zombies was the next movie I was going to watch today, but after about five minutes I had to bail because it was so unbearable. Quick thinking pointed me onwards 1973's Westworld staring Josh Brolin!