Watching Seagal's brutal, bone-crunching explosive debut in 2023 felt fresh & gave me a new respect for such an excellent movie.
I grew up watching & loving Steven Seagal films, especially a video boxset i had that contained 3 of his absolute best: Nico aka Above the Law, Hard to Kill & Out for Justice.
I also had Marked For Death, Under Siege & The Glimmer Man on video way back in the 90's & I've always claimed that his 1991 vigilante cop thriller OUT FOR JUSTICE as my absolute favourite Seagal film, Or Marked For Death (1990) i love both, But, as of 2023 having re-watched his brilliant debut movie NICO, i gotta admit that this is as great a movie!!! It's hard to pick a favourite because i love Nico, Out For Justice, Marked For Death & Hard to Kill, Seagal's Early movies were action staples of my childhood. Under Siege is great too.
We get a good backstory for our brutal movie hero Nico, he was a good-hearted soldier during the horrific war in Vietnam & became a specialist for the CIA, before leaving that murky world behind to enter a new murky world as a cop. Back home in America Nico is a tough-as-hell cop in a drug infested Chicago.
Since coming home in the 80's Chicago is a city on the verge of exploding with gang violence, thugs & drugs. Nico uncovers a connection between the CIA & the drugs lords of the streets, Nico is like a bloodhound on the case & will stop at nothing to expose them.
Nico is a guy that does it his way with a fist & a gun. Seagal gives a fantastic performance as young hot headed & short-tempered Nico. Still angry at what he witnessed in Vietnam he doesn't have any mercy for the scum he comes accross & i love it. Watching Nico with fresh 2023 eyes i can honest say that the then young Seagal gave such an explosive performance for a first film. Seagal's acting was solid, he was believable & seemed so fresh amongst the action stars of the 70's & 80's. Seagal looked totally different from the regular action stars, he's very tall, very lean & had that cool slick back black hair & dressed like an ultra-cool street cop. Seagal definitely gave the performance of his Career in Above the Law as Nico, his ego wasn't a big distracting problem at that moment in time, that came as his fame grew. Steven Seagal was Unleashed on movie goers back in the late 80's & pretty much exploded accross screens with Above the Law, an action movie that ranks as one of the best of the genre.
There's someone great about those early Seagal films, there's a real sense of time & place & are nice for Nostalgia of a better time & when movies were better.
Nico has a beautiful wife (a young Sharon Stone) a baby & a close family & his trusty partner Jackson, played perfectly by cult cinema legend PAM GRIER. The beautiful Pam Grier holds her own as Dolores Jackson, teamed up with the wild & loose cannon Nico as he wages war on Chicago's criminal underworld of drugs. Pam Grier is so likeable as Jackson, a cop that is as tough & fearless as Nico except she has control. Grier was perfect to balance Seagal's explosive Nico character & Jackson is the best character in the film after Nico. For the big bad villain we get B-movie bad guy regular Henry Silva in a very sadistic & evil role of ex-nam soldier turned drug kingpin, who Nico desperately wants to hurt.
The action is explosive, brutal & bloody with Seagal beating the shiznit out of anybody in his way & it's a blood-soaked good time.
From the Awesome clothing/fashion of the 80's to the excellent jazzy music score & gritty vibrant cinematography, Nico aka: Above the Law is top cop action thriller stuff, easy 10/10 in my opinion. Say what you will of Seagal now but back in his early years he was the best, a brutal specialist martial arts warrior who seemed the most deadly out of all the old school action stars!!! I always thought Seagal was the most brutal of the action stars & laughed so hard at how brutally he beat his enemies up, he really was fantastic to watch & with his short-fuse temper & savage mouth of street tough attitude. I love early Seagal films & consider his: Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Marked For Death & Out for Justice as all-time action Classic's, some of the greatest of the action thriller genre.
Nico deserves it's place up there with the Dirty Harry's & Lethal Weapons & many, many more great cop films.
Steven Seagal is excellent, fresh & savage in this blistering action thriller from the beautiful 80's.
I grew up watching & loving Steven Seagal films, especially a video boxset i had that contained 3 of his absolute best: Nico aka Above the Law, Hard to Kill & Out for Justice.
I also had Marked For Death, Under Siege & The Glimmer Man on video way back in the 90's & I've always claimed that his 1991 vigilante cop thriller OUT FOR JUSTICE as my absolute favourite Seagal film, Or Marked For Death (1990) i love both, But, as of 2023 having re-watched his brilliant debut movie NICO, i gotta admit that this is as great a movie!!! It's hard to pick a favourite because i love Nico, Out For Justice, Marked For Death & Hard to Kill, Seagal's Early movies were action staples of my childhood. Under Siege is great too.
We get a good backstory for our brutal movie hero Nico, he was a good-hearted soldier during the horrific war in Vietnam & became a specialist for the CIA, before leaving that murky world behind to enter a new murky world as a cop. Back home in America Nico is a tough-as-hell cop in a drug infested Chicago.
Since coming home in the 80's Chicago is a city on the verge of exploding with gang violence, thugs & drugs. Nico uncovers a connection between the CIA & the drugs lords of the streets, Nico is like a bloodhound on the case & will stop at nothing to expose them.
Nico is a guy that does it his way with a fist & a gun. Seagal gives a fantastic performance as young hot headed & short-tempered Nico. Still angry at what he witnessed in Vietnam he doesn't have any mercy for the scum he comes accross & i love it. Watching Nico with fresh 2023 eyes i can honest say that the then young Seagal gave such an explosive performance for a first film. Seagal's acting was solid, he was believable & seemed so fresh amongst the action stars of the 70's & 80's. Seagal looked totally different from the regular action stars, he's very tall, very lean & had that cool slick back black hair & dressed like an ultra-cool street cop. Seagal definitely gave the performance of his Career in Above the Law as Nico, his ego wasn't a big distracting problem at that moment in time, that came as his fame grew. Steven Seagal was Unleashed on movie goers back in the late 80's & pretty much exploded accross screens with Above the Law, an action movie that ranks as one of the best of the genre.
There's someone great about those early Seagal films, there's a real sense of time & place & are nice for Nostalgia of a better time & when movies were better.
Nico has a beautiful wife (a young Sharon Stone) a baby & a close family & his trusty partner Jackson, played perfectly by cult cinema legend PAM GRIER. The beautiful Pam Grier holds her own as Dolores Jackson, teamed up with the wild & loose cannon Nico as he wages war on Chicago's criminal underworld of drugs. Pam Grier is so likeable as Jackson, a cop that is as tough & fearless as Nico except she has control. Grier was perfect to balance Seagal's explosive Nico character & Jackson is the best character in the film after Nico. For the big bad villain we get B-movie bad guy regular Henry Silva in a very sadistic & evil role of ex-nam soldier turned drug kingpin, who Nico desperately wants to hurt.
The action is explosive, brutal & bloody with Seagal beating the shiznit out of anybody in his way & it's a blood-soaked good time.
From the Awesome clothing/fashion of the 80's to the excellent jazzy music score & gritty vibrant cinematography, Nico aka: Above the Law is top cop action thriller stuff, easy 10/10 in my opinion. Say what you will of Seagal now but back in his early years he was the best, a brutal specialist martial arts warrior who seemed the most deadly out of all the old school action stars!!! I always thought Seagal was the most brutal of the action stars & laughed so hard at how brutally he beat his enemies up, he really was fantastic to watch & with his short-fuse temper & savage mouth of street tough attitude. I love early Seagal films & consider his: Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Marked For Death & Out for Justice as all-time action Classic's, some of the greatest of the action thriller genre.
Nico deserves it's place up there with the Dirty Harry's & Lethal Weapons & many, many more great cop films.
Steven Seagal is excellent, fresh & savage in this blistering action thriller from the beautiful 80's.