I’m not sure who it was, but a wise man once said “One cannot live on Exploitation movies alone.” It is with this clever, yet completely fake quotation that I must apologize to my readers who were desperate to hear my take on Shock Waves, the thrilling story about Nazi Zombies or Grizzly, the thrilling story about a bear that loved to meet new and exciting people and then eat them. While I definitely plan on getting to these movies in the future, right now I had to look past this group of low budget, trashy cinema and get back to my bread and butter with higher budget, trashy cinema.
More specifically, the Action films of the 80’s and 90’s have completely taken over my viewing rotation, which I know comes as a complete shock to the three people that read this column on a regular basis. More specifically are the films of master thespian and musician, Steven Seagal. Yes, I know that now Seagal is a bit overweight and stuck doing “Straight to DVD” epics, but while I was in high school, this guy was the cinematic Karate Master heir apparent to Chuck Norris for American fans.
Smartly, what studios did when he came on the scene was publicize just what about Steven Seagal was so awesome. Training from the age of 7, the man eventually earned a 7th Level degree black belt in Aikido and was the first foreigner ever to own and operate an Aikido dojo in Japan. Known as “Master Take Shigemichi”, he was the chief instructor at the Aikido Tenshin Dojo in the city of Osaka. Eventually, he was the instructor for some big Hollywood clients and just like Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee before him, got noticed by executives who thought he would make a good action star.
Considering that I’ve watched practically nothing but his films for the last couple of weeks, they were apparently right on the money. They just needed to find the right vehicle for him, so enter Andrew Davis, the man who lead Chuck Norris to one of his biggest and best successes, Code of Silence. Co-written by Davis and Seagal himself, Above the Law would turn out to become a decent success for Seagal, and would lead to further box office success for nearly a decade.
Above the Law Starring Steven Seagal, Pam Grier, and Henry Silva. Directed by Andrew Davis.
In his feature film debut, Steven Seagal IS Nico Toscani, a lethal ex-CIA operative now working the mean streets of Chicago as the most bad ass cop in the city. Things are going fine for him until a major drug bust turns sour and he finds a cache of plastic explosives. Things get even worse when all the men he busted are let go and basically put under the protection of the old CIA men he used to work for. When some of the plastic explosive is then set off in the church Nico attends, the bad guys soon learn that no one is above his law.
Perhaps more than anything else, the thing I love about this film is how much it feels like Code of Silence. Both Andrew Davis directed films take place in Chicago, and feature an incredible amount of the same players, including Henry Silva as each film’s major villain. To see the guys Davis uses as his cops in both movies makes you wonder if they actually just used guys from the Chicago Police Department as extras. These guys don’t just look like movie cops, these guys are all grizzled, like they’ve been walking the beat for twenty years when we come in on this movie. It’s this authenticity that helps these movies succeeds even when their main leads aren’t exactly Academy award winning actors.
Both films are also about one cop standing up against dirty dealings within their department, just interchange two of the most bad ass men to ever set foot on a movie set. While I still prefer Norris, Seagal is pretty impressive in Above the Law’s action sequences. The art of Aikido has never had a better screen representation than Seagal, and he’s appropriately brutal here, snapping wrists and necks by the dozen. Seagal’s legitimate background also helps with his screen presence, blurring the line between reality and screen persona like Lee and Norris had done before him.
Davis smartly also helps to hide Seagal’s screen inexperience by putting him with a seasoned veteran, much as he did with Dennis Farina as Chuck Norris’ partner in his earlier film. Here, Pam Grier gets the assignment as Delores Jackson, Nico’s partner and bullet magnet. The buddy-role in these movies is always a tough and hardly ever rewarding one, but just like Farina, Grier is up to it, helping to shield Seagal, both acting wise and in the movie.
It helps to have a great villain too, and once again Henry Silva is up to the task. As CIA agent and torture loving maniac Kurt Zagon, Silva is as evil as I’ve ever seen him. The man’s stone face is perfect for playing heavies like this, making me wonder if he even wore makeup in his role in Dick Tracy. While he’s not going totally over the top, ala Sharky’s Machine, he’s perfectly serviceable as the crazy bad guy that Seagal has to take down in a truly horrible manner.
All in all, Above the Law was a great introduction to the dramatic stylings of Steven Seagal. Formulated to perfectly fit the screen persona he and Director Andrew Davis had created, Above the Law was a success both financially and moderately with critics, a follow-up went quickly into the works. Now just as you would expect with a Norris or Van Damne, there’s not going to be a completely different feel from one Seagal movie to the next, and so it is with Hard To Kill. With more bad guys to take down, Seagal’s second go round isn’t exactly a stretch, but it’s still a good time.
Hard to Kill Starring Steven Seagal, Kelly LeBrock, and William Sadler. Directed by Bruce Malmuth
Steven Seagal IS Mason Storm, a good cop who gets caught up in a political conspiracy and as a result, his family is executed and he is put into a coma. Believed dead, he wakes up seven years later in order to exact his revenge and take down the men responsible. While Hard to Kill’s plot and direction aren’t exactly ground breaking or Oscar worthy, the movie’s hard hitting fight scenes are pretty exciting and Seagal finds himself in a worthy follow-up to Above the Law.
Relying more on actual hand to hand combat than his previous effort, Hard to Kill is a little better at showing off Seagal’s skills as a martial artist. An opening beatdown in a convenient store establishes Storm’s invincibility, but after he returns from his coma is when the fists and feet really come out. It’s tough to pick the movie’s best action sequence, as an assault by thugs on a house where Storm is recuperating is fun, but a scene in which Seagal takes out three men in the film’s finale is an impressive physical display.
I just really like how nonchalant Seagal always looks as he takes down these scumbags, he never seems to be overly furious like Bruce Lee. Its not that he looks bored, he’s just got that look like he’s really concentrating, and the next thing you know the guy running toward him has a broken neck. Seagal’s fights aren’t really like modern Kung fu scenes, instead finishing off his opponents quite quickly. The scenes are perhaps closer to Samurai films with their lightning fast sword work. The choreography in a Seagal film isn’t beautiful or graceful, it’s quick and very violent.
It’s worth mentioning that Kelly LeBrock , who was actually Seagal’s wife at the time, plays his love interest in the movie perhaps earning him the title of “one of the luckiest men on earth.” Those who have seen Weird Science will probably agree with me. To her credit she’s just as fine as the nurse who saves Storm when he wakes from his coma and helps him escape before he is murdered. She’s basically just eye candy in the film, but you could do a lot worse.
The movie’s biggest flaw (all things considered) is that the bad guys aren’t quite as strong as the ones in Above the Law. The film’s main heavy is William Sadler as Senator Vernon Trent, and while he’s pretty formidable for Bruce Willis’ John McClane in Die Hard 2, he’s hardly anything but a guy that yells at other henchmen in this film. Other henchmen, such as the one’s portrayed by Dean Norris and Branscombe Richmond don’t really fair much better, most of them just ending up fodder for Mason Storm.
Hard to Kill was another success, but not necessarily a step up for Seagal. The movie is very watchable and pretty fun, but no where near Seagal’s best stuff or as good as the best of his contemporaries like Norris or Stallone. The movie has its moments, but ultimately Hard to Kill isn’t a supremely memorable film. Still it would lead to bigger roles in better films down the line.
So I’m probably going to stick with various 80’s Action flicks for the next few weeks, but I promise to finish out my Exploitation celebration before too long. Till next week, take it easy.
Picture Credits: Impawards.com, moviescreenshots.blogspot.com,seagal.mirrorz.com
