Above the Law (1988)

Sadly Over-hyped

Absolutely the worst movie.

Absolutely Fantastic

A Masterpiece!

This is an action flick starring Steven Seagal, in his first motion picture appearance, as former Special Operations Vietnam vet Nico Toscani, who works as a Chicago cop who tries to expose those broiled in a CIA-involved illegal weapons trade.This movie only has a handful of action scenes, but the plot is still pretty suspenseful and fast-paced, from the cover-up angle involving the CIA to the assassination plot of a U.S. senator. The acting was fine for the most part, with villains you would love to hate. But, I thought Seagal's performance was a little emotionless and stoic, but his awesome martial arts skills and quick wit are entertaining to watch. I also enjoyed Pam Grier's character - Seagal's partner-in-crime Delores Jackson.Overall, it's not a bad action-flick - somewhat entertaining.Grade B-

Nico Toscani is a martial arts expert who was recruited by the CIA and sent to Vietnam. While there he witness the sadistic treatment of prisoners by Zagon, an interrogator, when he clashes with him, Nelson Fox, his friend tells him to get away. Nico goes home to Chicago and becomes a cop. 15 years later, when he busts a major deal going down, he discovers a haul of plastic explosives. Not long after, Fox calls Nico to warn him to back off and later he is arrested and suspended from the force. But when a bomb is detonated at his church, and kills the parish priest, Nico wages an all- out war on whoever's doing this......The years really haven't been kind to this movie, and as a debut for Seagal, it's pretty mediocre stuff. But films like this were very unique, and are scarcely seen now.The budget for the film wasn't huge, but marketing for the film was very heavy if I remember correctly, and Seagal was a no name. Imagine a studio like Warners releasing a 50 million budgeted movie, where the only advertising was of someone you'd never seen or heard of before holding a gun? It sounds bonkers. Something fishy must have been going on, Seagals always been shady about his past.But that's the exciting part of the film over with, and considering its directed by Davis, its a pretty dull film, with admittedly good fight scenes, but they are few and far between.The big problem with the film is that there are too many caricatures on display here. The Mafia are always in restaurants and dress like prohibition is still going on, men of the cloth are almost too religious, and don't get me started on the owner of the shop that gets destroyed, I think the casting director just flicked through a cultural match book and picked the cheapest actors.But it's all about Seagal, and he can carry a film, his screen presence is definitely remarkable, you could see his star quality. Seagal is very restraint in this, but I feel like a lot is missing, the relationship between him and Grier is very rich, but on feels like something was edited out for time sake, because it appears that they are more than just friends on more than one occasion.His trademark swagger came into full swing with Hard To Kill, and he was unstoppable until Fire Down Below, but seeing this now it's amazing how culturally offensive and borderline racist the film actually is.Still great fight scenes though, which really is the only reason to watch this.

When it comes to action stars, they are at first, calm and collected in some scenes in an action movie. Some of those action stars tend to show off their skills like martial arts. But even though they may have that gift of turning the audience with their screen presence, we can sometimes forget that they are playing an character. A character who is essential and important to the movie.In Above the Law, Steven Seagal is the star of the movie. However, this is his first one. Seagal plays a Chicago cop who was recruited by the CIA in 1969 in Japan. In 1973, he was sent to Vietnam and while there, he witnesses a brutal torture of a Cambodian resident under the spell of a vicious man, (Henry Silva). Seagal's friend advises him to leave Vietnam and go home. 15 years later, Seagal is a Chicago policeman, working with a partner, (Pam Grier), who is retiring in a couple of months. When he learns that a major shipment is going down in Chicago, Seagal's character, Nico Toscani, finds out a cache of explosives. Things get worse after that. Toscani father's church is blown up and it's up to him to find out who is responsible for the bombing. This leads Seagal through a change of pace as he breaks the rule and risks his entire police career by trying to rights the wrongs.Seagal does an impressive job of playing an main character who is believable. In some scenes, he knows how to act calm and play it straight. When it comes tot he action scenes, Seagal knows how to show off his martial arts skills. Most action actors tend to lost their character by putting too much emphasis on their skills. But not Seagal. He may be different than Charles Bronson or Clint Eastwood, but you got to give him credit for what does best. It's a shame that he wouldn't repeat the same thing twice because after he starred in Above the Law, Seagal starred in another film called Hard to Kill and Under Siege. His career then started to take a turn for the worse when he decided to drop out of Hollywood and starred in a number of bad action movies. Those ween't really worthy of his career, but Above the Law certainly shows what Seagal is meant on the big screen.The supporting cast is also very good. Pam Grier, who was also a major star in the 1970's is very good and sort of surprising to see her starred along aside Seagal. Grier is very convincing as Seagal's partner. She is noticing just how his behavior is getting in the way of his police appearance. The movie was directed by Andrew Davis, who also directed Code of Silence, which is, perhaps, the best Chuck Norris movie ever made. Davis certainly knows how to make a city story interesting. He photographed Chicago very clearly and very skillfully. When it comes the action scenes in this movie, Davis knows how to step back and let Seagal perform his fighting skills, which is pretty impressive. After he made Above the Law, Andrew Davis directed Seagal again in the 1992 action thriller, Under Siege. According to my perspective, I believe that with the teaming of Seagal and Davis being strong, I think that with the tools they have to make a decent action picture, they certainly do know how to make them exciting, not nauseating. It's rare to find a bonding between actor and director, especially in the action genre. Most action directors now don't really work together to make scenes seem exciting.With the exception of Seagal's performance, Above the Law has a plot that is sort of complicated if you follow everything very carefully. But as an action movie, it is effective even when Seagal is on the big screen. This movie proves that he can act in character and even, if I dare to say so, out of character. He is that good. ★★★ 3 stars.

This is by far the best movie Steven Seagal ever made. I think it was his first movie, and because of this, I surmise, he probably left the people alone that had the creative control. He was also younger then, and in better shape then he is now. His most recent movies appear to have action stunt doubles, whenever there is any jumping around required, and that's really a let down. In this movie the martial arts moves are crisp and believable. The writing in the movie was great and some of the lines, particularly by the bad guys like Zagon, I remember to this day. The actors that play the CIA "spooks" are good, as is Pam Grier, Seagal's partner in the movie. A great Martial Arts action movie, and definitely in my top 10 list.