Final Justice is an action movie directed by Angels Revenge's Greydon Clark, and is notable for starring MST3K legend Joe Don Baker (of Mitchell fame).
The Movie
Synopsis
His name is Thomas Jefferson Geronimo. His brand of justice doesn't stop at the Texas border! Geronimo (Baker) is a deputy sheriff working in a small town in South Texas. When two mafia hit men try to escape across the border to Mexico, Geronimo, with the skill of a quick-draw gunfighter, kills one and captures the other. When Geronimo tries to take his prisoner to Italy for extradition, they find themselves on an unplanned layover in Malta. The Texas lawman must battle the Mafia to finish the job he started. [1]
Trivia
- Like all the R-rated movies shown on the show, the network had to remove some content, most notable is Joe Don Baker's constant use of Son of a Bitch, with the expletive portion silenced out and lazily replaced by SciFi Channel's typical white noise silence. Four episodes earlier, Experiment #1004 Future War had a few scenes with the audio going silent each time one character started to curse and only allowed for more lampooning from the SOL gang.
- The Uncut version of the film contains more tasteless moments such as showing an implied assault on one of the drug lord's dancers and obviously all the harmless-by-today's-standards language is restored as well as a topless moment from another female lead. Surprisingly, all of the violence is maintained and not cut out in the MST3k version (possibly due to it being quickly shown and not too bloody and/or would've killed continuity even more if anything had been modified).
- Greydon Clark (who co-stars as Joe Don's partner who's shot at the beginning via sloppy continuity by the film's main villain) had previously directed two other comedy movies with Baker (Wacko, Joysticks), Experiment #722 Angels' Brigade (with Jacqueline Cole and Jack Palance), the alien horror film Without Warning (again with Palance), Tom (again with Cole) and many other infamous exploitation Z-grade films.
- This film (along with Girl in Gold Boots and Hamlet) is one of the three films during MST3k's time on the SciFi Channel to not fit into the usual horror/fantasy/sci-fi areas. Unlike Comedy Central, SciFi did not want MST3k to riff on movies outside those genres, but as they knew this would be their final season, the MST crew decided to do a few "straight" movies they felt were worth it.
The Episode
Host Segments
Prologue: Tom and Mike consider the unexplored implications of the Yes song "Owner of a Lonely Heart." Tom is insistent that the band should have considered every possible permutation of "A owner of a lonely heart, is much better than-".
Segment One: Now whenever Mike and the Bots say "Owner of a Lonely Heart," they're assaulted by a Yes orchestra hit, while down in Castle Forrester Pearl attempts to raise productivity through humor, but she doesn't approve of the type of humor demonstrated by the SOL crew or Bobo.
Segment Two: Disturbed by the sequence where Greydon Clark is shot and slides down the wall twice, Mike and the Bots strive to point out how annoying this is to Pearl. Repeatedly. She eventually caves and promises to never send another Joe Don Baker movie where a sheriff is shot and slides down the same wall twice.
Segment Three: Goosio, friend to Maltese children everywhere, arrives on the SOL as a goodwill ambassador, but the bots think it's a joke by Mike and brutally dismember the poor lovable goose. Oops.
Segment Four: Crow has written an essay on the wonder and splendor of Malta. It also includes a great deal of slander against the men of Malta.
Closing (Segment Five): Mike erroneously assumes that because Joel was able to escape after watching a bad Joe Don Baker film that it must now be his turn to escape. The Bots gently point out that, regrettably, it's not and tell him to come upstairs for some Swiss Miss. Mike asks if they can watch a good Joe Don Baker film, but Crow assures him that would never happen. Meanwhile down in Castle Forrester, Pearl's funny dress-up day gets a scary dose of reality from Brain Guy.
Stinger: Geronimo's catch phrase - "Yew think yew kin take me? Go 'head on. It's yer move."
Obscure References
The last thing a sausage sees.
- "Jon Lovitz refuses a drink."
Jon Lovitz, a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live during the late 1980s and early '90s, then voiced the title character on the short lived animated sitcom The Critic, and most recently appeared in a series of commercials for the fast-food chain Subway. The man refusing a drink resembles him.
- "Do you know John Wayne?" "Gacy, yes!"
- Serial killer John Wayne Gacy sexually abused and murdered 33 boys and young men during the 1970s.
- There are a few references to Mitchell, which was the previous move starring Joe Don Baker on the show.
- "None of them are spongeworthy."
- A reference to a Seinfeld episode in which Elaine struggles to decide whether her current boyfriend is worth using a now-discontinued contraceptive sponge for.
- "Oh Kermie...Take a look at my good stuff!"
- The "pig lady" float does bear a strong likeness to muppet diva Ms. Piggy.
- "John Rhys-Davies for sale!"
The diminutive bearded man standing in the background bears some ressemblance to actor John Rhys-Davies. When this episode aired, he was known for his role as Sallah from the Indiana Jones movies. Later he would be remembered for his role as Gimli from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
- I'm just going to read a sermon from a Robert James Waller book
Robert James Waller wrote Bridges of Madison County and Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend both of which were published as small square novelettes.
- "Hey, he's a felonious monk!"
- A punning reference to jazz musician Thelonious Monk.
- "Bon voyage Joe Don...I'm off to make Xerox commercials!"
Referring to the 1976 Super Bowl ad where a Franciscan monk uses a Xerox machine to duplicate manuscripts.
- "I don't really care for this remake of A Lion in Winter"
The Lion in Winter was a famous play by James Goldman and movie about King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and their struggles for the British throne. Something of a non-sequiter reference, although the ref takes place in a dungeon scene, which featured prominently in the play.
- "She's the Miles Davis of strippers."
Legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis was famous (infamous? I never know which one to use in these situations) for performing with his back to the audience.
| preceded by: Season 9 | MST3K Season 10 | followed by: Season 11 | ||||||
| 1999 | ||||||||
| 1001 | Soultaker | 1999-04-11 | 1006 | Boggy Creek II | 1999-05-09 | 1011 | Horrors of Spider Island | 1999-07-25 |
| 1002 | Girl in Gold Boots | 1999-04-18 | 1007 | Track of the Moon Beast | 1999-06-13 | 1012 | Squirm | 1999-08-01 |
| 1003 | Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders | 1999-09-18 | 1008 | Final Justice | 1999-06-20 | 1013 | Diabolik | 1999-08-08 |
| 1004 | Future War | 1999-04-25 | 1009 | Hamlet | 1999-06-27 | |||
| 1005 | Blood Waters of Dr. Z | 1999-05-02 | 1010 | It Lives by Night | 1999-07-18 | |||