Final Justice

Final Justice was a 1984 film starring Joe Don Baker (most famous from his role in Walking Tall) and directed by B-movie veteran Greydon Clark. It follows the exploits of a Texas sheriff who overturns a Maltese city to find the bad guy who killed his partner. The film was lampooned in 1999 on Mystery Science Theater 3000. It is the second Joe Don Baker film to be riffed on MST3K, following Mitchell, to which a few references are made in this episode.

Related Topics:
1984 - Joe Don Baker - Walking Tall - B-movie - Greydon Clark - 1999 - Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Mitchell

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Joe Don Baker plays Texas "lawman" Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III, a beefy sheriff and avid milk drinker. His partner is killed by an Italian mobster. He finds the criminal, a man named Joseph Palermo, and escorts him back to Europe, only to lose him in the capital city of Valletta in Malta. He then thumbs his nose at local law enforcement and uses all the tactics of Texas justice to pursue Palermo. A cat-and-mouse game follows, with fistfights and car & boat chases.

Related Topics:
Texas - Valletta - Malta

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The film contained a notoriously cyclical plot. It would begin at a hole-in-the-wall bar, populated by a bartender with an attitude, a crowd of Mediterranean bad guys, and triangle-clad strip dancers. The jukebox continuously played You Better Run, the film's theme song. The sheriff would get a tipoff, then would search the city. Property damage and violence would result, followed by Sheriff Geronimo being thrown into jail. The police chief would chew him out, let him go, and the sheriff would be back at the bar, and so forth. The producers were able to recycle a considerable amount of footage in this revolving sequence.

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