Beyond the Law

Poor filming, poor directing, poor acting, poor fight choreography, poor script, poor continuity, poor character development, poor concept. I used to be a Seagal fan, but I am finally realizing he has nothing left in the tank. Was hoping for at least a watchable and somewhat entertaining film. Unfortunately, my expectations were not met in either case.

First, Steven Seagal has gotten fat. He does not look healthy--much less fit. This movie is dark...in more ways than one. Not only is it done in gritty inner-city areas but its subject and characters are almost all negative creatures of darkness. Seagal appears in only one fight scene--if you can call it that. He whispers, which is hard to hear and irritating. He has this vague Southern accent, which seems put-on. Worse still, he isn't the hero. I've been a fan of Seagal for many years, and have a collection of perhaps all of his videos. This one may well be the last.

Seagal has been coasting on fumes for a while, but this is cheap and shoddy, even by his rapidly declining standards. He's not even the star of this revenge tale; his role - such as it is - is tangential, and his contributions to the "action" is even less than his poorly-delivered dialog. And for new achievements in cost-cutting, several of the fatal shootings are heard, but not seen. As little as they obviously spent on the script, you'd think they had a few bucks to spend on squibs, so we'd at least see some blood on the bodies. This flick deserves all the lack of revenue the budget people must have expected.

The answer is no... they would've done a better job. Two writers - amateur Johnny Martin Walters in his first ever writing credit, I can cut some slack, but there is no excuse for seasoned writer Chad Law to allow such an atrociously dialogued screenplay make it to the cameras. Then there was the plot-hole riddled convoluted and infantile story. There was more smoking cigarettes and cigars than action, you'd think this film was financed by Marlboro.

Casting Seagal is what you'd expect in his performance, only less and less action from him the more films he's in. I really wish he'd stop that annoying whispered dialogue thinking it makes him more "hey boss" mobster-ish. And enough with the hair color and hair plugs already, it's getting hard to take him serious anymore. All other casting and performances were decent, with Johnny Messner being the stand-out.

Directing by James Cullen Bressack was adequate, some decent camera work, but also bad choppy action {of what little there was} scenes. Cinematography was decent, and the score bearable - it was annoying, out of place and overbearing in some parts of the film.

Even if you're a fan of Seagals, don't expect to see him much in this film, let alone any more than 1 min total of him in action. The rest of the film he's drinking, smoking stogies, and whispering. It's a generous 4/10 from me.

Should one expect good acting from a sub B movie? Perhaps not. How about an actual plot that isn't a rehash of every other revenge film? How about Mr Seagal without that fake New Orleans accent?

Time lost never to be recouped