The First of Several…
Above the Law is one of probably a half dozen or more films starring Steven Seagal whose name has three words — kind of amusing if you think about it, but all humor and tidbits aside, Above the Law was Seagal’s screen debut. Despite what many people think of Seagal as an actor, he was important for the action movie industry during the 90s and still stars in some direct to video films today. There has even been talk of a Van Damme / Seagal cross-over movie, although I wish they would have done that about a decade ago.
Anyway, in Above the Law, Seagal is Nico Toscani. Nico is a tough Chicago cop but was previously a CIA agent work in Vietnam. He was witness to some brutal interrogation techniques performed by his peers and superiors, including Henry Silva’s character, Kurt Zagon. Fast forward back to present day and to Chicago’s drug problem. Nico begins to discover a plot involving several ex-CIA agents who are behind a lot of the drug trafficking in Chicago and who are also planning to murder a US senator. Nico receives assistance from Pam Grier’s character, Delores “Jacks” Jackson who is on the verge of retiring before deciding to risk it all and help Nico solve this dangerous case. Meanwhile Sharon Stone has a small role as Nico’s wife, who is sent away for protection while Nico goes head first into his fight against Zagon and his colleagues.
Above the Law is primarily an action film and there is a good amount of it in between scenes that further the plot. For the most part Nico uses his Aikido skills to quickly disable groups of enemies who stand in his way, but there is a lot of gun-play in the film as well. As with most of his films, Seagal is essentially untouchable as he efficiently disables attacker after attacker, although he does take quite a beating near the end of the film.
As one of those late 80s, early 90s action movies, Above the Law fits in as a fairly average one. It’s well worth a watch, but once is probably enough. It’s not to say the acting is really poor, or the directing, it’s just not that captivating of a film like many during this era were, like Commando, Kickboxer, and Hero And The Terror. I would submit Above the Law as a good late night or weekend movie, but not one that you’ll likely want to watch many times over.
A Rough Blu-ray
Above the Law on Blu-ray is rough, to be frank. The video quality is very poor at times as some scenes have more grain than any other Blu-ray release that I have seen. The contrast is good for most of the film and the colors look fairly vibrant, but the severe grain during many scenes will leave you shaking your head. A Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track does okay for the audio, although on a side note the F-word is used to exhaustion.
For extras, Warner Home Video offers just the trailer of the film and nothing else. It’s disappointing, but it’s obvious no extraordinary effort went into this release given its poor picture quality.
To the summary…