Nic Cage plays Will Gerard, a New Orleans English teacher who dances badly in night clubs while wearing a glittery mask, and plays chess with his best friend, who happens to be Michael out of Lost (Harold Perrineau). Shortly after the couple’s anniversary, Laura is brutally assaulted as she heads home from a rehearsal. Later, while anxiously waiting for his wife to regain consciousness in a hospital waiting area, Will is accosted by Simon (a creepily gaunt Guy Pearce), who claims he can have Laura’s attacker taken care of in exchange for a few simple favours. In spite of his better judgement, Will’s anger wins out, and he agrees to Simon’s proposal. Laura’s attacker is subjected to a dose of terminal vigilante justice, but the repercussions for Will are, inevitably, unpleasant and far-reaching. Justice has some great moments itself – odd sequences, here and there, that hint at the tension of No Way Out. There’s a creepy home invasion, and a taut highway chase sequence. But these are merely glimmers of interest in an otherwise dreary and disappointing thriller. What’s most galling is that there’s a far better thriller buried somewhere in here, but it can’t escape from its maze of mediocrity. Setting Justice in New Orleans is a logical move, since it still resonates with the horrible destruction of hurricane Katrina. Its locations are often blandly chosen – inordinate periods are spent in bars or under anonymous concrete bridges – but occasionally, the reverberations of a city shattered by disaster still cut through. It’s an interesting question that Justice swiftly discards in favour of a fairly generic chase thriller. Like any number of films shown on TV after 10pm, Justice begins with a strong premise, but then sallies forth along a path so familiar that its events can be predicted quite accurately within minutes. As a result, Will’s one of those unfortunate central characters who spends over an hour trying to get to the bottom of a mystery the audience had already solved shortly after the lights went down. Viewed against the backdrop of appalling Cage films – The Wicker Man, Season Of The Witch, Drive Angry – Justice is by no means the worst, but then again, its mediocrity actually counts as a further black mark. Films like The Wicker Man were so awful that it was quite fun to revel in their goofy dialogue and inept storytelling. Justice tries to plumb such depths of absurdity, but doesn’t hit rock bottom. In order to agree to Simon’s proposition, Will isn’t asked to simply nod or send a text saying, “Oh go on then” to a stranger’s mobile phone number. Instead, he’s told to buy a pair of chocolate bars from the hospital vending machine. There’s also a certain amount of pleasure to be gleaned from counting how many times the catchphrase “The hungry rabbit jumps” is repeated throughout the film. Sadly, guffaw-inducing moments such as these are rather sporadic. Even Cage, whose performances can often range from the brilliant (Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation) to the downright crazy (Kick-Ass, Face/Off) appears to be on autopilot here, and delivers none of the sweaty mania that made Bad Lieutenant (also set in New Orleans) so memorable. Justice, then, is a thriller devoid of thrills, devoid of rabbits, and worst of all, devoid of the Cage madness it so desperately needed.