Eddie Dodd (James Woods) was a legendary, crusading hippie lawyer in the New York of 60's and 70's, but for the last 10 years or so he's been making a living principally by getting drug pushers off. Roger Baron (Robert Downey Jr.) is a recent University of Michigan law graduate, who travels to New York with the dream of working with his idol. Eddie hires Roger but the latter's evident disappointment in him, prompts his taking of the case of a Korean American man who killed someone in self defense in prison.
Roger quickly comes to the conclusion that his client Shu Kai Kim (Yuji Okumoto) shouldn't be in prison at all, that he didn't commit that China Town gang murder 10 years before. The more Eddie and Roger dig, the more opposition they encounter, from everyone from the D.A.'s office to Neo Nazi's. Reinvigorated by again fighting injustice, Roger finds his life in danger and uncovers a conspiracy with larger frightening implications.
This is good. This is what I some times call "the 4 star 3 star movie." It does what it does exceptionally well, but without breaking any new ground or doing anything standout stylistically. James Woods, while kind of a creep in real life, is a great actor, it's also fun to see Robert Downey in the young whipper snapper role. The likable Margret Colin plays Dodd's chief investigator and Kurtwood Smith the imposing D.A. Capable direction from Jospeh Reuben from a pretty smart script by Wesley Strick, who would have a big hit the next year with 'Arachnophobia'. ***
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