Out For Justice

Out For Justice (1991)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: John Flynn

Starring: Steven Seagal, William Forsythe, Jerry Orbach, Gina Gershon

From: Warner Brothers

These days, Steven Seagal is often thought of in a negative fashion, with his lawsuits, legal problems, his weight gain, and what have you*. Yet, back in the day he was pretty awesome and was popular for good reason. I’ve seen some of his flicks in the past, so I figured I would talk about them here. Here is one that some say is his best. Before that, though…

• Although, at the two UFC shows he’s appeared at the past few months, people in the sports bars I saw the shows at marked out for him.

I’ll mention his first three movies, as I have seen them before. I won’t describe them as well as the awesome book Seagalogy does, where his oeuvre is discussed in a mostly serious manner; besides, I can’t really quote the book as it’s lost somewhere in my room. Above The Law was a nice debut for him. It had a busy plot but it was a lot of fun seeing him as an Italian cop who had to deal with corruption. Hard To Kill is a cop film with the gimmick that Seagal ends up in a coma for seven years and suddenly he wakes up and in little time he gets his revenge. It’s entertaining. Marked For Death has the Sensei as a former DEA agent who deals with Jamaican drug dealers. It’s wacky at times but it’s fun as hell, and he spends some time teaming up with the great Keith David, and they do make a fine team.

Now, onto this film. It’s another movie where Seagal plays an Italian cop; this time he has the hilarious name of Gino Felino. However, this one stands out for a few reasons, besides the entertaining action you get to see (which has some martial arts but there’s also a car chase and some nice shootouts). It’s set during the course of an afternoon and evening. It’s in a neighborhood in Brooklyn. And, the villain is just plain evil and has little to any redeeming qualities. That villain is Richie Madano and is played to scenery-chewing greatness by Forsythe. He kills people in cold blood out in the open. He smokes crack, which explains why he’s so out of control. And, as I’ve heard one person describe him, it’s as if Scorsese directed Yosemite Sam. But, that’s what makes things so tremendous.

Madano has mob ties but isn’t officially tied in with him. Neither is Felino, but he chats with them a few times; both he and they are on the hunt for Richie after he kills Gino’s cop partner; they both run into him and chaos happens. The shooting appeared to be totally random, an act from a drugged-out man, but as the hunt continues, the truth reveals itself. To reveal more would ruin things.

If you’re an old-school action film and you haven’t seen this, you must correct this mistake as soon as you can, as this is a grand old time, where you can laugh at some of Seagal’s victims howling in pain for an extended amount of time after they get hurt by the Sensei. You even get to see that SS is an animal fan and he saves an abandoned dog, which ends up resulting in a great gag.

I’ll be back tomorrow night with a new review.