- "When absolute power corrupts... Get Justice!"
American Justice is a 2015 action crime film directed by Demetrius Navarro.
After a hostage situation goes horribly wrong, Officer Jack Justice is suspended and goes on a vacation to Mexico. He witnesses a murder by some corrupt cops. When he tells the sheriff, he is framed for the crime. He breaks out, and proceeds to trash the town to settle the score.
This film contains examples of:
- American Title
- Arch-Enemy: Justice has Sheriff Payden, who framed him for murder.
- Badass Boast: Justice responds to Payden announcing his intention to kill him with this:
- Big Bad: Sheriff Payden, the corrupt chief of police.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Jack Justice is a Cowboy Cop with a Hair-Trigger Temper and tendency to brutalize his foes. Sheriff Payden and his police department are sadistic racists who treat their badges as a license to operate a protection racket and kill whomever they please.
- Clear My Name: Why Justice goes on his rampage.
- Crapsack World: the Texas town our hero passes through on vacation is filled with nothing but the dirt poor, drug dealers and a police force so corrupt and racist that the film treats the slaughter of the entire police department as a good thing.
- Dirty Cop: The main villains are cops who frame Justice for a murder.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Payden shoots Boyd in the face because the latter complained about finding cocaine instead of money.
- Epunymous Title: Referring to Jack Justice, cop.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: The villains love to make racist jokes.
- Evil Plan: Sheriff Payden, in an attempt to hide his corruption, frames a vacationing cop for a murder one of his men committed, fully intending to kill him in jail and disguise it as an escape attempt.
- Hate Sink: Sheriff Payden is a racist thug who treats his police department like a protection racket, forcing the local drug dealers to give him a cut under pain of death and browbeating the mayor by threatening his dog. When his men kill one of the dealers, and he personally guns down one for complaining about the corpse not having money, Payden decides to frame Jack Justice, a black cop passing through town, for the crime and then kill him for "escaping." When he captures Jack, he explains all this to him while also spouting off racist jokes. After Jack escapes, Payden tries to coax him back by threatening to have his men gang rape a woman he befriended before trying to shoot him In the Back.
- Hostage Situation: One kicks off the plot by going horribly wrong, leading to Justice's partner's demise and his own suspension.
- Kick the Dog: Sheriff Payden has several:
- Shooting one of his men in the head for complaining about finding cocaine instead of money.
- Taunting Justice with a racist joke while explaining his plot to frame him.
- Forcing Justice back into town by threatening to have his men gang rape a woman.
- Threatening to poison the mayor's dog when he tries to cooperate with Agents Cobb and Lobo.
- Meaningful Name: Of course the guy named Jack Justice is a cop.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The cops are all racist against black and Hispanic people.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Justice goes on one against the men who framed him.
- The Sociopath: Sheriff Payden, who uses his police department as a protection racket and murders people at the slightest annoyance.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Justice pulls this after blowing up Payden.
