Above The Law is Steven Seagal's debut acting role and despite what a lot of people may think of him and his movies nowadays his first 5 or so movies are very decent action crime thrillers and are well liked amongst fans of old school action and genre movies.
Seagal is a hard as nails cop who doesn't play by the rules who makes a living busting low level street thugs and drug runners before he stumbles upon a conspiracy involving crooked CIA agents who are planning to assassinate a US senator. The plot and characters are cliche by today's standards because we've all seen a hundred very similar movies by now but it's honestly really refreshing to go back and revisit this kind of movie. The action scenes are well choreographed and violent in a cool 80's/90's style, the acting is well done by pretty much everyone involved and there's absolutely zero shakey cam so you can actually tell what is happening during the fight scenes!
Seagal is believable in the role and the supporting cast features some great character actors you will recognise such as Pam Grier as Seagal's sassy partner and Henry Silva as the slimey bad guy who is evil pretty much for the sake of being evil.
Recommended if you are a fan of the good old days of action movies where the hero's were unapologetically masculine and tough and the action wasn't toned down to get a PG/13 rating.
Also check out Seagal's other early movies Hard to kill, Marked for death and Out for justice.
Also check out Seagal's other early movies Hard to kill, Marked for death and Out for justice.