Steven Seagal Movie:

		List Price: $28.99		Label: Warner Home Video Salesrank: 2611 Released: April 7, 2009
		Our Price: $11.24
		Used Price: $9.33
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
In his sensational screen debut, Steven Segal smashes his way into the top ranks of action stars, playing a maverick Chicago cop tracking down ex-CIA operatives trafficking drigs…and plotting a political assassination. Director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive, Under Siege) unleashes the fury all over the Windy City as Nico and partner Jax (Pam Grier) close in on a psychotic crimelord (Henry Silva). Through it all, Seagal is “a one-man lethal weapon” (Pat Collins, WWOR-TV/New York).

Description of Above the Law [Blu-ray]:
Steven Seagal plays a Chicago cop who takes on CIA types in this action thriller from Andrew Davis (The Fugitive). Davis brings muscle to the project, including some strong set pieces that make Seagal (who also co-wrote and co-produced the film) look awfully good. Costars Pam Grier and Sharon Stone give a big assist in that department, too, yet nothing can really mitigate such ridiculous moments as Seagal's getting profound with a villain in his raspy monotone: "You think you're above the law. But you're not." The DVD release includes full-screen and widescreen presentations, production notes, trailers, optional Spanish soundtrack and optional French and Spanish subtitles. --Tom Keogh

Above the Law [Blu-ray] Reviews:
This and the 1st. Under Seige are the Most Horrible Blu-Ray Transfers Ever
2009-08-22 - Stick with the standard DVD. The Blu-Ray has much more grain on it than the standard DVD. It's a great movie, but the worst excuse for a Blu-Ray I've ever seen.

Seagal Unfairly Criticized As Actor
2009-07-13 - This was Steven Seagal's first movie and pretty much summed up the way his films were going to go: marital arts-crime stories with overly despicable villains and our hero saving the women by out-fighting everyone.

Jean Van Damme and others followed with the same recipe which, by and large, has been pretty successful.

Before I saw this, I had read national critics blasting Seagal's acting talents but that was unfair; he's not a bad actor. It was also a surprise to see Sharon Stone playing a nice role and without makeup! That certainly changed quickly with her Basic Instinct-type persona.

It was fun to see Henry Silva again. As a kid growing up in the '50s and '60s, I used to see Silva on television a lot. He always played a bad guy, and played the part well....as he still does.
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Overall, a decent action flick but not one of Segal's more memorable films. He make a big upgrade with his next film, "Hard To Kill."

Excellent Action DVD
2009-07-10 - Despite S. Seagal's full of himself persona, he does a great job in his action based movies. I have all of the Blu-Ray DVD's he has made so far and I watch them on a regular basis. Every time I feel like watching a kick a-- dvd. I put one of them into the player and at times, run the action scenes in Slo-Mo for effect..haha

SEAGAL'S FIRST & BEST STILL AN UNDERAPPRECIATED GENRE CLASSIC
2009-05-23 - ABOVE THE LAW is one of my favorite of those great late 80's cop films along with LETHAL WEAPON [1987] & THE UNTOUCHABLES [1987]. Considering it was Seagal's first film it was surprisingly well done. He plays a pony-tailed maverick Chicago cop with a great name [Nico Toscani] and an unconventional way of doing his job--using martial arts to batter the truth out of suspected criminals. Early on it's an F-word festival with bars, bartenders and bar patrons getting wrecked and a young druggie--who has corrupted his neice--getting slapped around mercilessly by the on-a-mission Toscani [the actor who played the young druggie was marvelous--he shoulda gone places]. Toscani's partner is played by the looking-better-with-age vet Pam Grier. They are after a gang of LETHAL WEAPON-like ex military sociopaths who deal in drugs. The bad guys are led by Henry Silva who early in his career was amazing as a young psychotic cowpoke in the great but underrated Western THE TALL T [1957]. Silva has a great quote early on in the film as he responds to Seagal questioning the torture of an innocent prisoner---ya gotta look this one up yourself; it had me rolling in my seat. Silva's steely-eyed ruthlessness is aptly summed up in his "... I can make you disappear ..." line to Toscani--fun stuff here. A young Sharon Stone is here--her natural talent was evident even then as she gives a sharp performance despite little screen time. Raw Chicago locations give this movie an authentic sense of realism. Everybody seemed to be on their game for this one probably due to Andrew Davis' direction--he also directed Seagal's only other very good film the greatly entertaining but underachieving UNDER SEIGE [1992] as well as THE FUGITIVE [1993]. As we all know the promising Seagal subsequently went on to suffer from that Hollywood disease called "Sylvester Stallonization"--cranking out self-produced, self-serving, egoistic, pretentious, awful flicks on his own. Just gotta love Toscani's crusty older [ex-cop?] pal who provides him with firearms and bodyguards his family when the force suspends him and takes away his gun & badge. How about Toscani getting ambushed by a carload of local thugs, sent by Silva, in broad daylight. Great scene here as he takes them all on and methodically puts each of them out of service. In another memorable scene a friend of one of the ambushers whom Toscani has battered confronts him only to be clocked with a fist to the chest--the burly guy goes down like a chopped redwood. And in another memorable scene Toscani, who has just been confronted in a convenience store by another party of thugs sent by Silva, destroys both [the guys and the store] but is subsequently confronted outside by some real armed pros. One of the gangsters steps out and claims "you can't take us all on"--Toscani, without hesitation, puts him out with a gunshot to the chest. Overall, a great 'vent' flick, lots of fun lines & scenes, fine acting, very entertaining, although not for everyone's taste. I feel Seagal's best UNDER SEIGE notwithstanding.

Seagal At His Best
2009-04-03 - This movie is Steven Seagal's first and best. "Above the Law" features Steven Seagal as Nico Toscani. A tough, edgy police officer who once was a Special Ops agent in the Vietnam War. The movie starts off as a montage of moments early in Nico's life.(which coincidentally mirrors Seagal's own youth). From there, we move onto the Vietnam War, and then to present day Chicago of 1988. Nico is partnered with Dolores Jackson (Pam Grier) as they become involved in a case involving a drug shipment. When the bad guys are busted, the Chicago police and the Feds discover a cache of C-4 explosives. Eventually, Nico and Dolores discover a CIA conspiracy where they are dealing in narcotics trafficking to fund their covert operations. A Central American priest has paperwork to bust this operation, and it is up to Nico to uncover this dastardly plot.

Steven Seagal gives his best performance of his dubious career as he plays a relentless cop trying to bust the villains. Pam Grier is his supportive partner. Sharon Stone is also in the film as Seagal's wife. And the main villain is Henry Silva (Zagon), who has played numerous villains in the various films he has been in.

The fight scenes are very believable, with things and people being broken constantly. My favorite scenes are the aikido sparring session at the beginning, and when the 4 busters pull up in a convertible to confront Nico. The scene ends with this huge guy coming up to Nico, and he fells him with a double blow to the chest and stomach.

DVD Extra's:

* The Special Features section is a bit thin. The "Cast & Crew" has some bios on the various actors. It was interesting that the opening scene of the movie followed Steven Seagal's youth, and that Seagal has black belts in Karate, Aikido, and Kendo. "Behind the Scenes" just featured a couple of pages of text on the movie. "Theatrical Trailers" had 8 trailers of Steven Seagal movies.

I have always enjoyed this movie. Each time I watch it, I pick up some more dialogue from this movie. There are actually some hilarious one-liners from some of the background actors if you pay attention. I am not sure about the Blu-ray extra's, but the extra's on the DVD are not good. However, the movie is a great for those of us who love action movies !