the audience applauded

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Better Late Then Never

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I think Final Justice deserves a much higher score than the current 1.8, in fact it doesn't even belong on the bottom 100 list. That said, Final Justice (just one more justice, please)is by no means a good movie. It is almost exactly average.Joe Don Baker is kind of like the poor mans Steven Seagal, but without the martial arts, his acting, is just about average. The plot of the movie is likewise pretty straight forward 80's action plot. The action is pretty mediocre, not silly, but not very exciting. The villain, love interest and so on are all pretty typical action movie characters, not too stereotypical, but none too exciting either. The weird thing, is that the movie isn't actually cheesy like most B-movies would be, it plays everything more or less straight, and watching it, you end up feeling oh so meh.The point i'm trying to get across here is that you cannot get more mediocre than this, it is the absolute definition of mediocrity.

After apprehending the man responsible for the murder of his boss, Deputy Sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo, III, is assigned the task of taking the killer back to Italy. On the way, however, the plane is diverted to Malta. Not long after landing, the killer escapes. Now, and with little help from the Maltese police, Deputy Sheriff Geronimo is out to recapture a murderer. But will his "shoot first, take names later" brand of Texas justice work in a foreign country? Let me get this out right up front, I've seen Final Justice both with and without the Mystery Science Theater 3000 commentary. I've seen the scenes that were cut that help make the movie a more coherent whole. And I've seen the cut-up TV version that was used for MST3K. Having said that, I've got to admit that I much prefer the MST3K version. Why? Because Final Justice is one lousy movie. The MST3K commentary helps make it much more palatable. On its own, it's a real snoozer of an action movie with corny dialogue (often delivered with such thick Italian accents that it's impossible to understand), bad acting, weak direction, gigantic plot holes, and most everything else you'll find in a bad movie. And if most of Final Justice wasn't "so bad, it's good", it would be one terribly dull movie on top of everything else. So, yes, I enjoy the often very funny MST3K commentary over the bad movie on its own.My main sticking points with the MST3K commentary and with most of the reviews I've read on Final Justice, however, involve the criticisms of Joe Don Baker. The main weaknesses in Baker's performance actually have nothing to do with his size or the wardrobe choices of his character or any of the other jokes flung in his direction. Instead, I think much of it is has to do with the poor decision to cast him in the lead in the first place. Joe Don Baker has always struck me as a decent enough actor, but he's not the kind of guy I would call an "action hero" by any stretch of the imagination. He's more of a sidekick as he demonstrated with solid performances in a couple of James Bond movies. Or if you really want to blame someone for the problems with Final Justice, point your finger at director Greydon Clark. Clark's resume can't begin to compare with Baker's. So I say, "Lay off Joe Don Baker!"

I saw this movie on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and it was even bad by their standards. I got a strange sense of deja vue watching this as they kept "recycling" scenes (using the same footage multiple times). I guess they had to save money to keep up with JDB's dry cleaning bill as he sweats profusely throughout this movie. Sweat on a young fit guy sans shirt may be considered sexy by some, but not a fat middle aged guy. This movie was so bad, and so predictable that I didn't make it through the last 20 minutes or so, but I saw enough to "get the picture".I think this film had to be made in Italy as films this bad are outlawed by our Constitution. If you must see this film, watch it via MST3k, at least you will laugh. Thank God he and the hot Italian chick didn't do any bed scenes. JDB certainly was not Walking Tall here - but I don't mean to pick on him - everyone pretty much sucked in this movie including the Jimmy Dean Sausage dude (his dead partner).

I guess this goes to prove that Joe Don Baker will do anything for a buck. The concept of the film wasn't very good to start with. This movie has so many bad things about it I don't know where to start. The acting is horrible. The cinematography is marginal at best. The soundtrack was pretty bad. The score is terrible. There's a reason why this movie ended up on Mystery Science Theater 3000. I voted before I wrote this and I cannot believe that 9 people actually thought this "film" is excellent. They must have liked the two go-go dancers. Final justice would be if they locked this stinker in the film vault outside Wichita and never let anyone see it again! A 1 out of 10 rating is far better than this deserves.