Retro Film Review: Above the Law (1988)

When first Steven Seagal movies appeared in former Yugoslavia, local video distributors didn't look very inventive in marketing them. Hard to Kill, Marked for Death and Out for Justice were distributed as Nico 2, Nico 3 and Nico 4 - presumably as sequels to the first Seagal movie, Above the Law a.k.a. Nico. Fact that Seagal had played different characters in each of the films and that the plot and characters actually hadn't had anything in common apparently didn't seem to bother local (mostly pirate) distributors. For die-hard Seagal anti-fans (and they seem to be more vocal than Seagal fans) that could be the ultimate proof of Seagal's limited acting skills and his inability to be anything more than mediocre star of formulaic action films indistinguishable from each other. On the other hand, Seagal's fans might take this example as a proof that Seagal in his debut as an actor and producer, directed in 1988 by Andrew Davis, actually made very good and lasting impression.

Protagonist of this film is Nico Toscani (Seagal), son of Sicilian immigrants who went to Japan to study martial arts. His talents brought the attention of CIA, which recruited him and sent him to take part in covert operations on Vietnamese-Cambodian border in 1973. There he became disgusted with his superiors like Zagon (played by Henry Silva), who used war as an opportunity to engage into lucrative drug trade. Fifteen years after leaving the Agency, Nico works as Chicago police detective and one day finds out about major drug deal that involves Salvadorian drug lord Salvano (played by Daniel Faraldo). Nico and his partner, female detective Jax (played by Pam Grier), manage to arrest Salvano, but the drug lord is immediately released at the request of high ranking federal officials. Not listening to the orders to back off, Nico begins his own investigation that would link Salvano and his old pals from CIA.

For many people, Above the Law is the best Seagal film. It might be arguable whether it is the best film in his fimography, but Above the Law still has all important Seagal trademarks. Luckily, Seagal's lack of skills in scriptwriting and acting is compensated. We might disregard Seagal's wooden acting when in action scenes he uses his superb fighting skills and does most of his own stunts. Sometimes preposterous elements of the plot (Nico just "bails out" after being witness to the dirtiest possible CIA covert operation; spectacular, but definitely unrealistic assassination attempts etc.) are contrasted with the realistic atmosphere. Chicago-born director and script co- writer Andrew Davis uses his hometown locations and local acting talents with great success. Some of the supporting actors are great, like former blaxploitation star Pam Grier, while some, like Sharon Stone in rather thankless role of Nico's wife, show even less talent than Seagal himself. What distinguishes this film from the multitude of formulaic 1980s action films is the political message, more in line with the writings of Noam Chomsky than with the speeches of Ronald Reagan. CIA and, indirectly US government as a whole, is empowered with huge powers, which, unchecked because of "national security" considerations, might prove to be the ultimate threat to American democracy and world peace, much greater than any "evil empires" out there. This message is explicitly delivered to the audience through Seagal's sermon, another of his trademarks. This message might look somewhat dated now, after the end of Cold War, when USA lost motivation to be engaged into dirty little wars in Central America. However, even those who don't care much about political messages in the movies might really enjoy Above the Law as flawed, yet still entertaining example of an action genre.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on December 28th 1999)

==

Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax
Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc

Brave browser: https://brave.com/dra011

BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7

Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/9395-above-the-law
Critic: AA