Seagal really started with a burst, compared to other action heroes of those days he really had a different style. To me, only Jeff Speakman had a stunning style like that in his film ¨The Perfect Weapon¨ (if you leave the Chinese films out of the equation). Seagal's style is fast, fluent, and without compromise. You can see that he is learned in Aikido and Jujutsu. He's a joy to watch. The story, however, is a much used formula in the action movie business. In this film Seagal plays the narcotics police officer Nicola Toscani, who had a martial arts training in Japan, gets recruited into the CIA, fights in Cambodia or Vietnam (I'm not sure), gets involved in CIA drugs business and therefore, quits the CIA and joins the police force in New York. Here he gets into a lot of trouble because of his unorthodox police-work. Then he gets into even more trouble when he gets into CIA territory with one of his investigations. The film is not for mainstream movie-buffs, because the storyline is simple. You don't have to think a lot, just follow Toscani's experiences along his life as a police officer. Seagal's acting hasn't changed along the years that we have seen him in all the movies that he has made. But that isn't a thing to complain about, we have a lot of actors who do act good, but they aren't as good in martial arts as Seagal. For these reasons, I give this movie a 6 out of 10, but as for watching it, I have watched it over ten times.
Review of Above the Law
