The set - up of Above the Law is immediately arresting, with the viewing audience dropped straight into the middle of a very professionally planned and organised armoured car hijack, that we soon find out has links to the real - life Brabant Killers operations in 1980's Belgium.
There are other pleasant surprises to be appreciated. Clément Dumulin's score is unobtrusive, whilst nicely complementing the near non - stop action. The cast headed by Oliver Gourmet as a career crim and Lubna Azabal as his primary law officer pursuer are more than adequate in their various roles. The overall story, though clearly derivative and paying multiple homages to Michael Mann's classic Heat, is entertaining as such and is lent extra degrees of authenticity, knowing that co - director and co - screenwriter François Troukens, is a rehabilitated underworld figure in Belgium crime lore. Some of the action set pieces too are cleverly realistic and convincing given that the movie doesn't radiate a mega - budget status.
Unfortunately however, worthy Above the Law is, it never really rises much above B movie KPI's. Of major concern, as others have noted on this site, for an 86 minute film, the exposition is almost confoundingly sketchy. Characters are so lightly backgrounded, we are forced to only guess at their motivations for their on - screen actions. Nothing much is ever literally spelt out in a shortish film, which features long periods with little dialogue.
I understand the film has noir pretensions, but the lighting too often is annoyingly murky in an action film, where most things happen nocturnally. Co - director and Director of Photography Jean-François Hensgens, could have and should have done better to involve us, without expecting viewers to continually squint into poorly lit scenes.
It's a genuine pity that the production team didn't take more careful note at how well Mann draws his Heat characters and stages his scenes. If they had and acted accordingly, they may well have had ownership of a product of much higher calibre.
There are other pleasant surprises to be appreciated. Clément Dumulin's score is unobtrusive, whilst nicely complementing the near non - stop action. The cast headed by Oliver Gourmet as a career crim and Lubna Azabal as his primary law officer pursuer are more than adequate in their various roles. The overall story, though clearly derivative and paying multiple homages to Michael Mann's classic Heat, is entertaining as such and is lent extra degrees of authenticity, knowing that co - director and co - screenwriter François Troukens, is a rehabilitated underworld figure in Belgium crime lore. Some of the action set pieces too are cleverly realistic and convincing given that the movie doesn't radiate a mega - budget status.
Unfortunately however, worthy Above the Law is, it never really rises much above B movie KPI's. Of major concern, as others have noted on this site, for an 86 minute film, the exposition is almost confoundingly sketchy. Characters are so lightly backgrounded, we are forced to only guess at their motivations for their on - screen actions. Nothing much is ever literally spelt out in a shortish film, which features long periods with little dialogue.
I understand the film has noir pretensions, but the lighting too often is annoyingly murky in an action film, where most things happen nocturnally. Co - director and Director of Photography Jean-François Hensgens, could have and should have done better to involve us, without expecting viewers to continually squint into poorly lit scenes.
It's a genuine pity that the production team didn't take more careful note at how well Mann draws his Heat characters and stages his scenes. If they had and acted accordingly, they may well have had ownership of a product of much higher calibre.