Very disappointing...

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Derek (Keanu Reeves) is from an upper class home. His girlfriend Christie (Lori Loughlin) has to work for the money. He's jealous of her friendship with Victor (Kiefer Sutherland). After another incident of vandalism at school, the principal urges the students to set their own example. Quarterback Derek leads his football teammates in forming the Brotherhood of Justice. They crash a party where drugs are supposedly being used. Derek finds drugs on his brother and they beat up the drug dealer. Things soon get out of control as the vigilantes turn ever more violent. Derek has second thoughts.It's early Kiefer Sutherland and it's understandable that he was underused. He could have been an amazing violent second to Keanu Reeves. It's a missed opportunity although Billy Zane isn't that bad. Keanu is alright but he's better in River's Edge. The other problem is that it's missing an explosive ending. This needs to build to a kick-ass blowup but the end fizzles. It's fun to see some early Kiefer and Keanu but this is not their break-outs yet.

First off when I heard about this movie I decided to watch it because of it's 1980s teenager story, and Keanu reeves in his younger years, a well executed plot as any Charles Braverman film. I give it 10/10 for its 1980s atmosphere and realistic view of vigilantism during that time period,not to forget: it's lesson to all youth that sometimes standing up to crime your own way doesn't necessarily mean it can turn into a good thing when it finally turns tables on you in the long run. Another factor that I like about the film is its climax when Derek's friends use the brotherhood for their own greedy deeds and with all the trouble started Derek's girlfriend Christie persuades him to leave but a helpless Derek is left with only one choice in the matter: to turn himself in to the authorities along with his friends, thus ending the brotherhood once and for all.

The biggest reason to watch this is to see early performances from Keanu Reeves, Danny Nucci, Lori Loughlin, Billy Zane and Kiefer Sutherland (the latter despite being put on the cover only pops up every now and then).Cause the story just have so much to offer, it's very simple and starts out very cheesy like a PSA against graffiti and vandalism but eventually goes into more troubling issues like drugs and such but barely graces the surface of the subjects it tackles.And the end feels like a bit of a stretch, yeah it's very much the type of movie that the school would show at English class or whatever just to prove a point that vandalism is bad but so is taking the law in your hands so just stay calm in your corner and don't do anything bad.It's not all bad but it's definitely not all good either, I'll slap it a 5/10 but had there been no famous faces chances are very high it would be lower as that's the biggest entertainment value of the movie half the time.

I had seen this movie when it first aired back in the mid-eighties(I was a senior in high school at the time), and when I saw it again recently on cable TV, I realized that, for a made-for-TV film, it's not too bad. It's not great, either, but at least the writer and director seemed to not want to crank out yet another quickie network television thriller. The story gets surprisingly gritty, and a little bloody, in places. Even so,I think this film's big claim-to-fame is that the actor in the lead role is none other than future Speed-ster, dude-in-training Keanu Reeves. Check him out here at age 21!