After hearing about this Neo-Noir for a number of years,I was pleased to get hold of a rare UK Pre-Cert Video of the title.Once the Video arrived,I decided to search around for info about the movie,and I was disappointed to discover that 5 minutes had been cut from the UK release of the film.With recently having picked up auteur film maker Larry Cohen's gritty Blaxploitation flick Black Caesar,I decided to search around for more title which he has been involved in.Along with discovering that Cohen had written the screenplay,I was thrilled to discover that Fox Archives has recently put out an uncut version of the film,which led to me getting ready to finally judge the film.The plot:Working for years with fellow cop Jack Williams,Mike Hammer is horrified to find that Williams has been brutally killed.Wanting to go after Williams killer,Hammer is surprised to find his fellow officers giving him "warnings" about looking into things that are best left hidden. Delving into Williams personal life,Hammer discovers that he and his wife went to an upmarket "sex clinic." Visiting the clinic,Hammer confronts sex therapist Dr. Charlotte Bennett and her "assistants",who he discovers have been recording all of their discussions/sessions with clients.As Hammer pushes the police aside to fully uncover the strange sexual world that may have led to Williams death,a killer,(backed by people who want to keep Williams private life private)declares himself the judge,jury & executioner for Bennett's assistants and Mike Hammer. View on the film:Before I get to the film,I have to mention that Fox Archives has delivered a terrific improvement on the rusty UK Video print of the movie,with the widescreen picture being sharp and catching every dirty street corner of the title,and the clear audio allowing the viewer to hear Bill Conti's synch-Jazz score shake with every gunshot. Originally hired to direct until he got sacked due to going $100,000 over budget in the first week of filming,the screenplay by Larry Cohen places this adaptation of Mickey Spillane at the cross roads between the sun-set Neo-Noir and the steamy Erotic Thriller.Sending Hammer off to follow in the footsteps of his former partner,Cohen hammers Hammer into a decaying Neo-Noir world which is kept hidden by an alluring shell,which contains sex therapists secretly recording their clients deepest desires,and cops trying to put all their dirty money links onto a serial killer.Made before the sub- genre would hit the mainstream,Cohen ties the Neo-Noir with a wonderfully deranged Erotic Thriller edge,as a sadistic killer with "mummy issues" makes his victims look like mannequins,whilst Hammer uncovers the "sex therapy" to be a fashion house-style mansion,packed with alluring,but deadly femme fatales.Rushed into the movie after Cohen was given the boot,director Richard T. Heffron & cinematographer Andrew Laszlo (who also worked on the first Rambo movie in the same year) give the film a stylish,rough and tumble Neo-Noir appearance.Filmed on location,Heffron and Laszlo,scan the burnt-out streets with excellent whip-pans and tracking shots which inject the title with a menacing atmosphere,as Hammer and the mysterious killer close in on each other.Picking up on the genre-crossing mood of Cohen's screenplay,Heffron brilliantly mixes Hammer's gritty Neo-Noir beat with ravishing naked girls and a psycho sexual killer.Before closing the case on a brittle Noir note,Heffron slams Hammer into '80s Action,thanks to Hammer having to take control of the law by taking on the gangs of dirty cops,which leads to the dark underbelly of the city being ripped across the screen,as Mike Hammer declares himself the jury.

I've been watching Armand Assante since he was one of the Mike Powers on The Doctors some 37 years ago, and in all that time, I've never once thought of him as Mike Hammer. I still don't.In I, the Jury, Hammer goes to work on a different kind of case as he tries to find the killer of Jack Williams, a man who served with him in Vietnam and, while retrieving Mike's helmet, lost his arm. Jack was investigating something when he was killed, but what? After consulting Jack's widow, Mike finds out they went to sex therapy at a clinic, so he starts there. The head of the clinic, the beautiful Dr. Bennett (Barbara Carrera) freezes him out of her office. Mike ultimately realizes that Jack was there working undercover and found out something that resulted in him being murdered. This winds up involving Mike with the CIA, a mental patient, bad cops, and a rogue Army officer.Lots of violence and nudity and in the end for me anyway, not worth it. Assante does as good a job as he can, but he's no Mike Hammer. For one thing, he is too exotic-looking, for another, he's not hard-boiled. He's too smooth and his Mike is juxtaposed against the backdrop of some of the seedier parts of New York City in 1982, before Disney moved into Times Square. I did absolutely love seeing the New York where I lived - the Times Square smut, Colony Records, the Broadway/7th Aveue area, great fun.Not really my type of thing. It may be if you like violence and nude women, this is for you.

The scene where Armand Assante shoves the bad guy's face onto the hot griddle ranks right up with the dentist "Is it safe?" scene in Marathon Man. It is unique, and it makes you cringe any time you think of this movie.The mark of a true "tough" guy is that he will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. Armand Assante's Mike Hammer is one of the best portrayals in that regard.

This actually a combination of two Spillane books "I the Jury" and "The Body Lovers" This is not a great film, but good. The action and plot are pretty good and Assante gives a decent performance, but the thing that I remember the most is just how damn sexy Barbara Carrera is in this movie. I watched this movie with my mom on cinemax one night when I was in junior high school and I had to sit with a pillow on my lap. She blows away Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. She's very tempting at the end when she confronts Mike Hammer and he's got to make a life and death decision. This movie belongs to her. She has been good in other movies, but this is her best performance. It's worth watching for any fan of Barbara Carrera and sleazy action movies