The Brotherhood of Justice (1986)

Waste of time

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

When vandals damage the Santa Lucia High School, the principal Bob Grootemat (Joe Spano) joins the classes and presents a lecture to the students about the problems with vandals, drug dealers and other bad elements. Six friends - the students and football players Derek (Keanu Reeves), Scottie (Darren Dalton), Mule (Evan Mirand), Collin (Don Michael Paul), Barnwell (Gary Riley) and Les (Billy Zane) - decide to form a group of vigilantes to punish the delinquents and they call themselves "The Brotherhood of Justice". But the problem is when they decide to use their power for personal issues with other mates and lose control. "The Brotherhood of Justice" is a film based on true event, with a story of a group of vigilante teenagers. The cast has many names of actors in the beginning of career and it is worthwhile watching to see them in their early work. The conclusion could have been better developed. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "A irmandade da Justiça" ("The Brotherhood of Justice")

This was pretty rough to watch. I ordered it through Amazon Prime and I didn't see anything that said it was a TV movie. About 30 minutes into it I realized it either had to have been made for TV or it was rated PG. It definitely had a layer of "After School Special" that I couldn't ignore. A movie about high schoolers with such clean mouths never makes sense to me.It was fun to see so much future star power in the same cast, but the movie lacked the excitement I thought it would have based on the synopsis. I'm a Keanu fan, but even by Keanu standards his acting was horrendous. I did see many similarities between this movie and Point Break, which was interesting.Overall the story was unique and even more so after learning it was based on true events. I just feel like it was executed poorly and the pacing was painfully slow through most of this. It also felt like it was filmed with a home video camera.I would only recommend this movie for seeing these big names together so early in their careers, otherwise don't make an effort to watch this.

The obvious selling point for The Brotherhood of Justice these days is that it showcases Keanu Reeves, Billy Zane and Keifer Sutherland before they were famous. In the cases of Reeves and Sutherland, they would in fact become Hollywood A-Listers not long after this was released. It's a teen movie set in California about a gang of high school vigilantes who wish to teach a lesson to local criminals and fellow classmates they dislike. What starts out as fairly playful increasingly becomes quite dark as the gang gain confidence in their activities, their actions become more criminal themselves.This was seemingly a pilot for a series that never was. It's also based on real events that happened a year earlier in a Texas school. It actually makes for quite an entertaining and interesting enough TV movie. The gang and their actions are presented in shades of grey, with the audience only meant to sympathise with them up to a point. It means there is some melodrama generated, while at the same time having a fairly suspenseful parallel narrative to compliment this. It's made for TV, so it does have certain limitations but, mainly, this works pretty well and will especially be of interest to those interested in the young soon-to-be film stars. It also ends in a quite abrupt and surprising way that I personally thought was quite good.

I remember my cousin telling me about this movie when we were younger and I was dying to see it. When I finally did I really liked it, it was something different for a movie about teens. The acting is decent as is the story it's good to see Keanu, Kiefer and Billy in early roles. It might be a bit out dated but it's still worth the watch! 7/10