Beyond Justice Reviews

Viewing BEYOND JUSTICE is like stepping into a Hollywood time machine and landing back in the heyday of John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. Has the world really been waiting for another desert adventure featuring shieks, camels, heir-snatching and infidels filmed in a retro-style that matches the dated subject matter? Millionairess Christine Sanders (former covergirl Carol Alt, doing a fair impression of Grace Kelly) should never have married Moulet (Kabar Bedi), an emir's black-sheep son, much less given birth to his child. Now Moulet's Koran-quoting father (Omar Sharif) claims his grandson Robert must take his rightful place ruling the family's desert empire. Who you gonna call when your rather brattish tyke is whisked off to North Africa? Why international soldier of fortune Tom Burton (Rutger Hauer), that's who. Despite sage counsel from an advisor, Sal (Brett Halsey), and an attorney (Elliott Gould), Christine insists on crashing the rescue party. While the emir flaunts his kingdom before his young heir, Burton and company scheme to infiltrate his fortress by posing as arms dealers. Despite such glitches as a faulty radio, which forces Burton's partner to abandon him temporarily, and a sandstorm which gutsy Christine insists the rescue team endure, Burton is soon able to initiate his surprise attack from inside the fortress. With eventual assistance from the torn-between-two-worlds Moulet and a secret passageway, Robert is able to escape. When the emir pursues the heir-nappers, he's sidetracked by a vicious attack from an old enemy. Offered his choice of prep school or oasis, the boy who would be emir opts for a return ticket to America where he already lives like royalty. The luminous photography captures the burnished gold of the desert sun; the lush musical score swells with epic abandon; the audience snoozes. Not one unpredictable moment mars the perfect undramatic arc of this suspenseless concoction. Somehow it's a comfort to realize that not even exploding tanks or loud inter-tribal warfare is going to shake you from your torpor. While the production values are superior and the cast is competent, the plot has been bounced over this particular camel hump once too often, and the actors have been hired to embody types rather than flesh-and-blood characters. Since the heroes are well-paid mercenaries, it's hard to root for them. Worse yet, the character of the coveted Robert is given such a spoiled personality and is portrayed by such a smug little trouper that you hope he will solve everyone's disagreements by getting killed in crossfire. What BEYOND JUSTICE delivers is a tedious child-custody battle plunked down in the middle of a foreign legion fantasy. Mediocre from start to finish, the film is handsomely mounted but enervating. Poor Omar Sharif: he must be wondering how he got from David Lean's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA to this bargain basement corner of the Sahara. (Violence.)