a5c7b9f00b Nico learned martial arts in Japan, and was in Vietnam for the CIA, and now is a cop in the vice squad of Chicago. A junkie tells him about a big drug deal; However it turns out that the deal was about C4 explosives and that one of the parties was the CIA. Nico gets ordered to keep out of it, but can't imagine why the CIA would sell C4, so he investigates further. While risking his and his young family's life, he discovers that the CIA tries to cover it's connections to drug dealers in Middle America and wouldn't even stop from murder. Nico Toscani is a martial arts expert who was recruited by the CIA when he was in Japan, he would be sent to Vietnam. While there he witness the sadistic treatment of prisoners by Zagon, an interrogator, when he clashes with him, Nelson Fox, his friend tells him to get away. Nico goes home to Chicago and becomes a cop. 15 years later, when he busts a drug dealer, he tells Nico of a major deal going down, when he busts them, he discovers a cache of plastic explosives. And before he knows it everyone he arrested is released and when Nico tries to find out what's going on, a brick wall thrown in front of him. But Nico isn't about to let that stop him. And before long Fox calls Nico to warn him to back off and it's not long after that he is arrested and suspended from the force. And when a bomb is set at his church, which kills the parish priest, Nico wages an all-out war on whoever's doing this. Essentially, if you have watched the Lethal Weapon series, you have witnessed character Sergeant Riggs using some black-bag martial arts techniques. If you like this black-bag action, you will adore Steven Seagal's martial arts acting in "Above the Law".<br/><br/>Like similar action movies like "Batman Begins", "The Blues Brothers", and "Code of Silence", "Above the Law" is shot mostly in Chicago. So I can recognize some of the Chicago sights like the elevated tracks and the Pilsen neighborhood.<br/><br/>One scene where a lady in a black robe carries a hidden bag containing a bomb in front of the pulpit in a big Catholic church, leaves the bag in front of the priest, runs away–-tells you what is going to be the outcome. You see the deadly explosion afterward, which kills the priest on arrival at the hospital. Seagal realizes that the explosive in the hidden bag was C4, because he had been involved in this explosive during his Special Forces duty in Vietnam. <br/><br/>Seagal tries to find out what caused the church bombing. The Chicago police and FBI find out that the ringleader was Nelson Fox with the help of agent Silvano….Seagal tries to figure out by meddling into the police investigation. He finds out that the C4 explosive was also bought by Nelson Fox. But he finds out that he gets penalized for interfering with the investigation. Seagal gets harassed by unwarranted search warrants, and even death threats to his family.<br/><br/>He does not give up despite the barriers against him.<br/><br/>In his private investigation, with the help of a Japanese friend, Seagal finds out that this band of mercenaries, with help from the CIA, were trained in covert terrorist tactics, concentrating on counterinsurgency and guerrilla warfare–-similar to what the FARC is doing in Colombia. And this same group is led by Nelson Fox. In the end, Seagal realizes that these bad guys have blended in with a group of Latin American missionary immigrants who were going underground in the basement room of the same Catholic church that was bombed.<br/><br/>Seagal now realizes that this group is planning to assassinate a senator….so he goes all-out to try to stop them. Seagal eventually is kidnapped by the mercenaries and is tortured but he finds a way out of his trap and eventually kills all of them, saving the Senator's life. This is by far the best movie Steven Seagal ever made. I think it was his first movie, and because of this, I surmise, he probably left the people alone that had the creative control. He was also younger then, and in better shape then he is now. His most recent movies appear to have action stunt doubles, whenever there is any jumping around required, and that's really a let down. In this movie the martial arts moves are crisp and believable. The writing in the movie was great and some of the lines, particularly by the bad guys like Zagon, I remember to this day. The actors that play the CIA "spooks" are good, as is Pam Grier, Seagal's partner in the movie. A great Martial Arts action movie, and definitely in my top 10 list.
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