Above the Law (1988)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Andrew Davis

Writers:

Andrew Davis (story) &
Steven Seagal (story) ...

Release Date:

8 April 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

He was a covert agent trained in Vietnam. He has a master 6th degree black belt in Aikido... and family in the Mafia. He's a cop with an attitude.

Plot:

Nico Toscani is a martial arts expert who was recruited by the CIA when he was in Japan, he would be sent to Vietnam...

Plot Keywords:

CIA | Drugs | Martial Arts | Vietnam | Explosive

Cast

Steven Seagal	...	Nico Toscani
Pam Grier	...	Delores 'Jacks' Jackson
Henry Silva	...	Kurt Zagon
Ron Dean	...	Detective Lukich
Daniel Faraldo	...	Tony Salvano
Sharon Stone	...	Sara Toscani
Miguel Nino	...	Chi Chi Ramon
Nicholas Kusenko	...	FBI Agent Neeley
Joe Greco	...	Father Joseph Gennaro (as Joe V. Greco)
Chelcie Ross	...	Nelson Fox
Gregory Alan Williams	...	FBI Agent Halloran (as Gregory Alan-Williams)
Jack Wallace	...	Uncle Branca
Metta Davis	...	Rosa Toscani
Joseph F. Kosala	...	Lieutenant Strozah (as Joseph Kosala)
Ronnie Barron	...	CIA Bartender

Also Known As:

Nico (UK) (cable TV title)
Nico: Above the Law (Australia)

Runtime:

99 min | Germany:93 min

Country:

USA | Hong Kong

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

West Germany:16 (cut) | Finland:K-16 (cut) | Finland:K-18 (cut) (1989) | Netherlands:16 | USA:R (Certificate #29113) | Argentina:18 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (original rating) | Canada:18A (re-rating) | Australia:R | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Norway:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Buck Town, Lincoln Square, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Steven Seagal's film debut. He also co-wrote and co-produced.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the christening party, the man with the apron has a stain that comes and goes.

Quotes:

Nico Toscani: You know something Fox. Right now in Europe they're trying some 80 year-old camp guard for Nazi war crimes. And all around our country they got guys on death row for murdering 1, 2, 3 guys. And they probably deserve what they're going to get. But you & I...

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Unbeatable Bruce Lee (2001) (V)

Infra Dig

I think I've got it figured out, why we like action movie heroes so much. It's the sudden escalation of violence that they unepectedly initiate. There may be a verbal encounter between the hero and a heavy. The hero asks a simple question. (Here, the question is, "Did you ever see this girl?") The heavy makes some rude reply. "Why doan you get your greazeball face outta here?" The hero smiles silently, half turns away, then quick as lightning swings back and cracks the guy's face open like a cantelope. This generates the sort of adrenalin rush in the viewer that is missing from the viewer's own life. The psychologist Daniel Berlyne called it an "arousal jag."

The action sequences themselves have reached the zenith of gore, so blood is no longer very exciting. Their success depends on choreography, turning the fights and shootouts into a kind of "Singin' in the Blood." Of course, let's face facts, there are only so many bridges to fall off, so many tall buildings to dangle from, so many ways a car can spiral through the air after hitting a dumpster -- so you have to borrow things. Remember how Clint clung to the roof of the heavy's car as it plowed through the alley in "Magnum Force"? Ditto here.

Let's give the hero a partner who belongs to a minority group too, just to show that he can banter with the guy (or, in this case, the woman) and isn't prejudiced. Come to think of it, a partner who is a member of a minority group AND a woman kills two birds with one stone. Come to think of it, I imagine it's pretty easy to banter with Pam Grier. We ought also to give the hero an odd-looking gun but they forgot to do that here. We should have a romance between the hero and his female partner, but not in this case because she's black. I don't believe white folks would object to such a liason but African-Americans might and I wouldn't blame them. But we can have the hero be either a tragic widower (his wife offed by bad guys preferably) or a happily married man and a father.

Seagal cannot be described as a good actor or a bad one because he doesn't seem to enact any role other than Steven Seagal. That's not a put down. The heroes in these action flicks are interchangeable. Willis, Schwarzenegger, Bronson, Norris -- it doesn't matter. They may look and speak a bit differently from one another, but those are accidents, not essences. The essence of their similarity is this: they escalate the violent encounter suddenly and unexpectedly. They don't use much in the way of strategy, it's all physical skill. What I mean is, they're not Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade. They're Superman.

I recommend seeing this only if you're REALLY mad at somebody that you can't punch out or hit over the head with a number nine iron. This should do a good job of displacing your anger and may even stop you from kicking your dog.