Be a Good Son
Judge John Goodnight (Luke Perry - Angel and the Bad Man) is still travelling from town to town to preside over disputes. It is how he ends up in a town where he runs into Callie (Stefanie von Pfetten - Seeds of Destruction), a girlfriend from way back in San Francisco. And things quickly become complicated as the town has been hit several times by the Spradling gang and when John arrests one of them, young Will Donohue (Cameron Brigh), he turns out to be Callie's wayward son. With the town, led by Lucius Breed (Eric Keenleyside - The Pastor's Wife), a lawyer, screaming for a hanging John insists on giving Will a fair trial especially when Callie tells him the truth about Will. But John has other plans as he wants Will to lead him to the Spradling gang so that he can bring them all to justice and bring an end to their campaign of terror.
When I reviewed "Goodnight for Justice" I ended the review by saying that it was a stereotypical made for TV western which has an easy going nature and plenty of prettiness, on par with the modern trend of made for TV westerns. When it comes to the first sequel "Goodnight for Justice: The Measure of a Man" well I can say exactly the same as we have pretty people, sharp images and despite an action based storyline is also easy going. As a fan of the old westerns it is inferior and often cheesy but in a time of slim pickens you have to take what you can get and it is mildly entertaining if not that believable.
Now did you ever play with toy cowboy figures as a child, if so I imagine you probably had this imaginary game where the good guy rides in to town to clear up the bad element which is causing trouble there? Well that is what we have here with Judge John Goodnight arriving to town on business and ending up going after the bad guy. Now that seems fair enough as a lot of westerns trade on this storyline except we have a twist, a pretty obvious twist which is played out in an entertaining but far fetched manner. And talking of which as action endings go this one is equally far fetched.
But for all the far fetched nonsense "Goodnight for Justice: The Measure of a Man" is entertaining in a modern TV western sort of way. I say that because it is very clean, both in look with pretty actors and composed imagery but also in the lack of grit in story all very typical of modern TV westerns. But if these easy sort of good looking westerns appeal to you and there are a few then it will entertain.
What this all boils down to is that no one could mistake "Goodnight for Justice: The Measure of a Man" for a good western but compared to other modern made for TV westerns it is entertaining. But it is cheesy, far too good looking and did I mention it was cheesy.
