David A. Prior's "Relentless Justice" was made back-to-back with "The Deadliest Prey", but curiously it was released two years later. It's a very similar movie, with an invincible fighter (this time it's a woman, does that count as originality?) getting 'hunted' in the woods by the dumbest villains ever. Apparently our bad guys have been killing people for years, but their military tactics consist of splitting up for no reason and then patiently waiting to be murdered. How did they even keep this gig up for so long?
The main difference with "Deadliest Prey", on the other hand, is that this movie has a very leisurely pace. In "Deadliest Prey", it takes about two seconds before the action starts. Here, we get a full hour of time-wasting. Just when you think the fight scenes are coming, we suddenly get Eric Roberts in an utterly pointless sub-plot that seems to come from a different movie altogether. It's obvious Roberts agreed to do this movie after the script was already finished, but the same goes for Troy Donahue and Cameron Mitchell in the original "Deadly Prey". Their inclusion still felt somewhat natural, while the scenes with Roberts are just baffling. He shows up in this movie and then just disappears fifteen minutes later, having had no impact on the plot whatsoever.
In all fairness, the addition of some enjoyable B-list actors is pretty much the only thing this movie has going for it. Apart from Roberts, we also get vVernon Wells and Andrew Rolston to liven up the mood. Ted Prior is pretty entertaining as a villain as well, but there's only so much this ensemble can do with their stilted, repetitive dialogue and no character traits other than 'evil'. "Relentless Justice" is not a farewell that really sums up Prior's career. He wasn't a brilliant filmmaker, but he did always give the audience what it wanted. He does that for the last act, but the set-up is so boring and pointless that most people won't even get that far.
The main difference with "Deadliest Prey", on the other hand, is that this movie has a very leisurely pace. In "Deadliest Prey", it takes about two seconds before the action starts. Here, we get a full hour of time-wasting. Just when you think the fight scenes are coming, we suddenly get Eric Roberts in an utterly pointless sub-plot that seems to come from a different movie altogether. It's obvious Roberts agreed to do this movie after the script was already finished, but the same goes for Troy Donahue and Cameron Mitchell in the original "Deadly Prey". Their inclusion still felt somewhat natural, while the scenes with Roberts are just baffling. He shows up in this movie and then just disappears fifteen minutes later, having had no impact on the plot whatsoever.
In all fairness, the addition of some enjoyable B-list actors is pretty much the only thing this movie has going for it. Apart from Roberts, we also get vVernon Wells and Andrew Rolston to liven up the mood. Ted Prior is pretty entertaining as a villain as well, but there's only so much this ensemble can do with their stilted, repetitive dialogue and no character traits other than 'evil'. "Relentless Justice" is not a farewell that really sums up Prior's career. He wasn't a brilliant filmmaker, but he did always give the audience what it wanted. He does that for the last act, but the set-up is so boring and pointless that most people won't even get that far.
