Above the Law - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Above the Law



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
I still don’t understand Steven Seagal’s rise to fame during the late 80s and the 90s. Back then, action stars were huge hunks of muscle, with a stiff lip, a gritty look on their faces, and more guns and karate skills than you could shake a stick at. But along came Steven, a tall, awkward-looking man with barely any muscle to his physique. And of course, that receding hairline that he has tried so hard to hide with plugs for literally 30 years. I can only assume that his lies about his past, as well as the introduction of a brand new type of martial arts (at least for cinema) that the world hadn’t really seen before, were in the way of Aikido. But hey, somehow Seagal managed to get his foot in the door and start making movies. And while his first films were generally considered his best, he did have a bit of a mediocre start with Above the Law.

Above the Law was right at the tail end of the 80s, where the American market was trying to mix the rising martial arts craze with traditional gun-soaked action that we were used to, and it feels very much like a relic of its time. Taking cues from Cannon Films, Above the Law was a gritty-looking crime drama with Seagal scowling the entire movie and taking on bad guys who would make Peter Stormare look down-to-earth and grounded in their acting styles. Seagal is Nico, a Sicilian immigrant who worked for the CIA during the 70s, only to move on to being a cop after getting out of the service after a run-in with a superior (played by Henry Silva). Now he’s cleaning up the streets of Chicago by day, and taking care of his wife (Sharon Stone) when he gets home. But when a group of CIA muscle men starts killing people on his streets, it's up to Nico to figure out how to bury his past once and for all, and keep the streets clean at the same time.

This is just cheesy fun. No real major plot twists, just Nico tearing through CIA-funded bad guys at record pace. The villains are hilariously fun caricatures, with Henry Silva absolutely hamming it up as the CIA commander Zagon (I love the names in these old action films). Seagal hasn’t really perfected the super duper commando tough guy persona that he would craft with later films, but he still has that scowling and muttering soft vocals that he’s sort of known for down pat. And while I’m a HUGE fan of 80s action films, this one came across as a bit too low-budget for my tastes. I’m pretty sure that this was a litmus test for Seagal’s future, so Warner didn’t really give him a ton of rope to hang himself with in case the movie went sideways.

But at the same time, there’s still a solid amount of fun to be had here. Seagal’s gun play is great (he was always a huge gun nut, one of the main reasons he carries a 1911 in just about every film he’s in), and the action sequences are really fun when Seagal gets to show off his Aikido takedowns. His ability to just throw stunt guys around like crazy is on full display, as people get thrown around like a football during that opening bar fight. Though you can tell he’s not really going insanely overboard on the stuntmen as he does in later films. So at the end of the day, Above the Law is your typical low-budget action movie. It’s got guns, knives, fast cars (well, not THAT fast) and hot women. Just at the expense of plot or believability.

Rated R by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:
Much like The Corrupter, I was very surprised at how good this film looked. Warner’s old Blu-ray has always looked kinda “meh”, with it being a heavily grainy 80s film with lots of wood and reddish hues to it. But according to the press materials, Above the Law was restored by Toy Robot Video and scanned at 4K / 16 bit from the 35mm OCN at Warner’s MPI, then restored and color graded at Duplitech for the final product.

The result is pretty stellar, especially when you compare it to the aging Warner Blu-ray on a single-layer disc. Said disc was cropped to 1.78:1 (as were many Warner 1.85:1 films back in the original Blu-ray beginnings), but this new master restores it back to its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Gone is the telecine wobble, the scratches, print debris, etc. of the old Blu-ray, and in its place is a fairly clean-looking image that is pretty dang impressive. Sure, there are some grain spikes in the darker shots, but that’s pretty typical of 80s films, and the fine details are really good. There’s some muddy brow imagery here or there that keeps colors from truly popping, but you can see plenty of pizzazz with Pam Grier’s pink dress, or the red blood squirting from Nico’s face as he gets pummeled in the chair. Outdoor shots tend to look the best, with interior and nighttime shots showcasing that grain spiking, as well as a mild muddiness here or there. But overall, this is a really great-looking image that takes full advantage of a new remaster (both for this and the included Blu-ray)


Audio:
And let's not forget the flat and thin-sounding Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix from ye olde Blu-ray that I’ve been griping about above. Luckily, this is a brand new mix that sounds a TON better as a result. Dialog is crisp and clean, but the surrounds get a major upswing in quality here, with tons of discrete and ambient sounds from the car chases, gunfights, and general mayhem of Nico walking through bad guys like paper targets. Bass is not massive, but it's still there with the car crashes (and,d in a smaller manner, the handgun shots). It’s not a perfect mix, but it still blows the doors off the old Blu-ray disc, and adds much more depth and punch to the track.


Extras:
• NEW 4K restoration from the original camera negative, approved by director Andrew Davis
• NEW Audio Commentary with director Andrew Davis and actress Pam Grier
• NEW Sounds of Seagal, interview with composer David Michael Frank
• Archival interview with Steven Seagal during the promotion of Above the Law
• Theatrical Trailer (New 2K scan from the interpositive)

Final Score: ​

Above the Law isn’t Seagal’s best work, but it is FAR, FARRRRRRRRRRR from his worst either. Being his first film, it was a simple low-budget action movie, but it was probably one of his more nuanced ones at that. Seagal’s ego and addiction to bedding every hot woman in his films hadn’t reared its ugly head, but the almost Cannon Films-esque cheapness of the picture keeps it from being a bona fide 80s classic either. That being said, the 4K UHD and included Blu-ray are a massive leap forward in audio, video, and extras, so fans of the film will be very pleased with what Toy Robot Video/Arrow did with the movie. Cheesy Watch is my final recommendation.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Steven Seagal, Pam Grier, Henry Silva, Sharon Stone, Jack Wallace
Directed by: Andrew Davis
Written by: Andrew Davis, Steven Seagal, Steven Pressfield
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Toy Robot Video
Rated: R
Runtime: 99 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 10th, 2026

Recommendation: Cheesy Watch