“SEEKING JUSTICE” Movie Review. A Terse, Vigilante Thriller. Or is it Not?

“SEEKING JUSTICE” PRESS PREVIEW

“SEEKING JUSTICE” admonishes us that in life, nothing can be created out of nothing.

There’s always a price tag – you’ve to pay for favors executed.

As in the case of Nick Gerard (NICHOLAS CAGE), a dedicated college teacher who’s trapped in this dilemma.

The story kicks off happily with Nick and his lovely wife Laura (JANUARY JONES) celebrating their wedding anniversary in a plush restaurant.

There’s so much love around, despite the fact that the Hurricane Katrina has just rocked the entire New Orleans and the citizens are still licking their material and emotive wounds from the mass destruction.

Not many nights after, Laura finishes her cello recital and is heading for her car parked in a lonely street.

There, she is physically attacked and brutally raped by a hurly burly ex-con.

Nick rushes to the hospital and is devastated by the heinous deed.

He meets Simon (GUY PEARCE) a smooth talking albeit suave dude from a vigilante group who claims that he’s able to “get rid” of bad people in return for an unspecified favor in an unspecified time.

Simon offers to “bump off” the rapist who shacked his wife as a logical mark of justice.

Nick who’s emotionally distraught over the situation, readily agrees only to regret this when the job is accomplished.

Life flips back to normalcy and everything is quickly forgotten.

Until one fine day – many months later, the underground vigilante comes knocking. Simon has looked Nick up and requests that Nick repay his dues by killing a guy whom the vigilante group deems as a pedophile, thereby a threat to society.

The problem is, Simon is appalled by the idea of vigilante justice and tries to escape the shackles of Simon’s notorious group.  He does not plan to be a killer  and is definitely not keeping  his part of the bargain.

Thereafter, a game of cat and mouse ensues with Nick and Laura fleeing for dear life.

“SEEKING JUSTICE” is an exciting and evenly paced feature with some decent twists.

NICHOLAS CAGE, JANUARY JONES and GUY PEARCE shine in their roles.

One can see that director ROGER DONALDSON sordidly captures a cold and relentless world and demonstrates the plight of an ordinary man when he is pinned to a far corner and forced to choose his options.

If placed in the same situation, what would you have done?

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“TRESPASS” Movie Review. What’s SAUCE for the GOOSE is NOT sauce for the GANDER.

“TRESPASS” PRESS PREVIEW

Help!

You can say that I am still seized with this bout of guilty pleasure after attending the preview of “TRESPASS”.

This is to warn myself that I have been treading on treacherous grounds.

All I did was to let my hair down and went with the flow.

I put myself through the sadistic terror the baddies inflicted on the corporate man, his woman and their daughter in a wealthy suburban abode.

Now, this film has taken a severe beating and garners the most of negative, scathing reviews from the world. You just leave it to the armchair critics and they’d have lots to gripe about.

I view it differently. Hence the guilty pleasure.

My point here is, in life, as in everything, not every great mind thinks alike. It’s best that you exercise your own opinion.

You can always be the one-in-a-hundred person.

Maybe I am the odd-one-out who see things a little differently, think a little differently and observe matters far more differently.

What is sauce for the goose may not be sauce for the gander.

Righto.

“TRESPASS” stars NICOLAS CAGE, NICOLE KIDMAN and the new sex symbol CAM GIGANDET.

But the REEL star of this home invasion thriller  is the gloriously elegant, desolate mansion where the entire story takes place, all within the span of a single night.

Sarah (KIDMAN) is an architect who’s happily married (or maybe not) to Kyle Miller (CAGE), a diamond merchant.

They are a seemingly upper class couple with an exclusive beautiful abode decked with the trappings of wealth.

Hold on there, all that glitters may not be gold.

There’s also, a lovely but rebellious daughter Avery (LIANA LIBERATO) added to complicate the parable.

Their luxurious lifestyle has inadvertently attracted a bunch of greedy thieves who plan to usurp their wealth.

Ten minutes into the film, on this fateful night, the unruly gang storm into the household and demand that the safe be opened.

They covet the contents – easy money to last them a lifetime.

Kyle knows that if he were ever to hand over the goods, the entire family’s lives will be extinguished, so he bids time, on whatever luck he can amass.

With a mix of bravado, Kyle enters into a deadly negotiation with the crooks, hoping that his ploy will pay off.

What ensues afterwards is a cat-and-mouse game in which a mayhem of loyalties are tested.

We witness screaming, cursing, punching, scrambling and threats amid the chaos.

Twisted revelations begin to surface – all within the confines of this stately home.

Secrets are out of the bag, lies are told to keep the viewer guessing whether there’s more to meet the eye.

Is the beautiful wife really faithful?  Or is the classy family just a showcase?

Things aren’t quite what they seem.

“TRESPASS” is competently directed by JOEL SCHUMACHER who took 40 days to film a one-night home invasion drama.

There’s a stark morale that we can learn from this movie.

First, lock your door at all times.

Second, don’t be such an absolute idiot to open your floodgate unprepared.

You may usher in unwelcome strangers who will terrorize your family.

“TRESPASS” is dedicated to die-hard fans of NICOLAS CAGE and NICOLE KIDMAN.

It is not that bad, really.