MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Twisted Justice’ Slow on the Draw

“Twisted Justice” makes a quick stopover at selected theaters on its way to the video cassette stores. It’s a relentlessly routine item set in 2020 when all guns have at last been banned, even for police. So what’s a macho cop (David Heavener) to do when he goes up against a crazed scientist (David Campbell) who’s impervious to standard issue stun guns, thanks to a a drug that both raises his intelligence and killer quotients?

Never fear, Our Man does have an outlawed weapon that he conceals through disassembling it and incorporating it as parts of ordinary items in his seedy apartment--e.g., the chamber of his gun becomes part of his shower head. Not exactly convenient for quick draws, but what the heck.

The film is entirely negligible, but it is a professional effort, bolstered by such familiar names as Erik Estrada, Don Stroud, Jim Brown, Karen Black and Shannon Tweed in supporting roles. You have to hand it to Heavener, an erstwhile Nashville singer-composer, for having the determination to write, direct and produce a series of pictures--”Twisted Justice” (rated R) is but the latest--in which to showcase himself and which are viable in the international market. As an actor he’s no better or worse than lots of others playing surly types with lots of attitude, but clearly his tenacity as a filmmaker sets him apart from the rest.