Vicious criminals are getting off on technicalities thanks to the smartness of their lawyers. Under these circumstances, talented writer-director Peter Hyams would have us believe that a group of high court judges might set up their own court of no appeal, with sentences carried out by a hit-man. It sounds reasonable enough and the only dubious part of the plot is why newest judicial recruit Michael Douglas would really want to do anything about it when he finds that two homicidal crooks 'sentenced' to death didn't commit the actual murders of which they have been accused. Hyams craftily hypes up the action, but pat performances make this an occasionally routine urban thriller.

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