Senorita Justice

A typically bottom-of-the-barrel direct-to-video actioner, Senorita Justice casts Yancy Mendia as Ana Rios – a successful lawyer who is forced to return to her old neighborhood after the brutal murder of her younger brother. Despite the pleas of her affluent boyfriend and a concerned local cop, Ana inevitably embarks on a campaign of revenge against the gang members responsible for her sibling’s untimely death. Director Kantz has infused Senorita Justice with a pervasively amateurish atmosphere that’s reflected in virtually all of its attributes, with Mendia’s less-than-convincing and downright inept work ultimately preventing the viewer from working up any interest or sympathy in her character’s plight. Far more problematic, however, is the film’s total absence of effective action sequences, as Kantz’s decision to infuse such moments with needless visual tricks essentially drains them of their impact – which is a shame, really, given the unabashedly tongue-in-cheek treatment of the protagonist (ie clad in an absurdly revealing outfit and toting two handguns, Ana comes off as a Latina Lara Croft). It’s consequently impossible to envision even the most forgiving action fan finding much here worth embracing, with the brief appearance of a pre-Desperate Housewives Eva Longoria standing as Senorita Justice‘s one fleetingly intriguing attribute.

* out of ****