← Back to Reviews
in
Above The Law
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Hamburgers, Chicken, something meaty I'm sure, also Powdered Wigs.
1986's Above The Law, not to be confused with 1988's Steven Segal movie of the same name and also known as Righting Wrongs, is easily one of the better martial arts movies I've seen and it's not simply because it's got exceptional fight scenes, they are good, but it actually has a pretty decent story too.
Yuen Biao, who I've increasingly come to appreciate in movies like Project A and Dragons Forever, stars alongside Cynthia Rothrock in a movie that's much more than just a buddy cop movie.
Biao is a vigilante prosecutor who's become disillusioned by the justice system he works for when he sees bureaucracy pardon bad guys and Rothrock is a police officer on his case, convinced that he's a wanted murderer, unknowing that it is in fact the police superintendent whose committing the killings.
The movie begins with a rather subpar opening which slightly less 80s than Yes, Madam, remarkable mainly for how overkill it is, the assassination target is loaded with bullets and bullets even after he's assuredly dead and when Biao manages to flip the baddies car, he's not done until he's ignited the ****ers on fire.
DANG, well it feeds into his character, so it may seem extreme at first, but it makes sense in retrospect.
The movie doesn't fall into the same trappings of Yes, Madam by being 70% gag dialog and sadly there is no Mr. Tin equivalent. If it did this would simply be THE BEST FRICKEN' MOVIE EVER.
I'm gonna repost that video because I couldn't help doing the Mr. Tin laugh all throughout this movie.
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]
Above The Law
Action / Chinese / 1986
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
For the Action Movie Countdown.
After Yes, Madam, I had to look for more Cynthia Rothrock movies and this is one of her biggest ones.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
After Yes, Madam, I had to look for more Cynthia Rothrock movies and this is one of her biggest ones.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
"I don't like whiteys, especially female ones."
Hamburgers, Chicken, something meaty I'm sure, also Powdered Wigs.
1986's Above The Law, not to be confused with 1988's Steven Segal movie of the same name and also known as Righting Wrongs, is easily one of the better martial arts movies I've seen and it's not simply because it's got exceptional fight scenes, they are good, but it actually has a pretty decent story too.
Yuen Biao, who I've increasingly come to appreciate in movies like Project A and Dragons Forever, stars alongside Cynthia Rothrock in a movie that's much more than just a buddy cop movie.
Biao is a vigilante prosecutor who's become disillusioned by the justice system he works for when he sees bureaucracy pardon bad guys and Rothrock is a police officer on his case, convinced that he's a wanted murderer, unknowing that it is in fact the police superintendent whose committing the killings.
The movie begins with a rather subpar opening which slightly less 80s than Yes, Madam, remarkable mainly for how overkill it is, the assassination target is loaded with bullets and bullets even after he's assuredly dead and when Biao manages to flip the baddies car, he's not done until he's ignited the ****ers on fire.
DANG, well it feeds into his character, so it may seem extreme at first, but it makes sense in retrospect.
The movie doesn't fall into the same trappings of Yes, Madam by being 70% gag dialog and sadly there is no Mr. Tin equivalent. If it did this would simply be THE BEST FRICKEN' MOVIE EVER.
I'm gonna repost that video because I couldn't help doing the Mr. Tin laugh all throughout this movie.
Man, if that was in this movie, 5 OUT OF 5, I'm tellin' you.
Anyway, instead of talky goons we actually get plot and plot healthily interrupted by regular fight scenes which are all pretty good, Cynthia Rothrock in particular was friggen' sick in a couple of her scenes, particularly against the female assassin where she gets to throw in some wicked gymnastic ****.
She even gets a fight against Biao which was a pleasant surprise too. Eventually the characters figure out that Mr. Superintendent is dirty and corner him in an airplane hangar.
Up to now the movie's basically climaxed with the death of a couple characters, most notably a kid who was the inadvertent witness to Mr. Superintendent's crimes and serves to bring Biao and Rothrock's characters together after a whole lot of melodramatic finger pointing. Really, this kid was a throwaway character, I didn't really care about him, he's really just there to get the characters to argue meaningfully over their conflicting approaches to justice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah, you're gonna have to do a whole lot more than thaCYNTHIA ROTHROCK NO!!!
Doooooohhhhh, gaaawwd, the bastard stabbed her in the throat with a hand drill and LEFT HER HANGING!!! NNNNOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOoooooooo, YUEN BIAO KICK HIS FRIGGEN' ASS!!!
OOOOHHH!!! The movie's gotten smart on me and the fricken' TITLE DROP AAAAAAHHHHH
This movie rocks.
REWATCH UPDATE:
Sadly how good I remember this movie being doesn't really hold true through a second viewing. It's certainly decent and most of whatever standout flaws I can catch are largely negligible (offscreen ramps prop a compact high enough off the ground to drive over another car, how in the hell could you do that otherwise), but in retrospect it seems to me that I'm eager to latch on to this movie mainly because it so clearly rises above the competitors in it's genre. And let's be honest, most martial arts movies are pretty ****. Even Jackie Chan movies are hard to impress with all they get padded with.
So it really is a credit to the movie that it has a relatively decent story to pick it up in between the fights, but really, after rewatching it, it really feels like it takes a while to pick up, and it's not really altogether clear really really why really it has to really drag it's really ass really really really fo sheally.
*ahem*
It takes a while to really get into the gear and the first few fights are fairly mundane. Even the final showdown itself is best highlighted by Rothrock's character dying, a few lines of dialog, and a pretty overdone hangin' off a propeller plane stunt. I dunno. The fistfight in the first Indiana Jones was better and that wasn't even the climax.
Altogether it's a good movie, nothing really really really to write home about, but surely a short peak among martial arts movies, if not in Cynthia Rothrock's acting career.
Anyway, instead of talky goons we actually get plot and plot healthily interrupted by regular fight scenes which are all pretty good, Cynthia Rothrock in particular was friggen' sick in a couple of her scenes, particularly against the female assassin where she gets to throw in some wicked gymnastic ****.
She even gets a fight against Biao which was a pleasant surprise too. Eventually the characters figure out that Mr. Superintendent is dirty and corner him in an airplane hangar.
Up to now the movie's basically climaxed with the death of a couple characters, most notably a kid who was the inadvertent witness to Mr. Superintendent's crimes and serves to bring Biao and Rothrock's characters together after a whole lot of melodramatic finger pointing. Really, this kid was a throwaway character, I didn't really care about him, he's really just there to get the characters to argue meaningfully over their conflicting approaches to justice.
Humans and animals are different because humans don't have tails!
Doooooohhhhh, gaaawwd, the bastard stabbed her in the throat with a hand drill and LEFT HER HANGING!!! NNNNOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOoooooooo, YUEN BIAO KICK HIS FRIGGEN' ASS!!!
Originally Posted by Yuen Biao
What kind of monster are you!?
Originally Posted by Mr. Superintendent
*tutututututu* We're not in court Mr. Prosecutor, I'm not on trial. Let's face it, we're both killers! You maintain that you kill for the sake of justice and just consider me a common criminal. Whatever the motive of the murderer, the murderer should be held accountable under law! But then, no court will try us... we've placed ourselves ABOVE THE LAW!
This movie rocks.
REWATCH UPDATE:
Sadly how good I remember this movie being doesn't really hold true through a second viewing. It's certainly decent and most of whatever standout flaws I can catch are largely negligible (offscreen ramps prop a compact high enough off the ground to drive over another car, how in the hell could you do that otherwise), but in retrospect it seems to me that I'm eager to latch on to this movie mainly because it so clearly rises above the competitors in it's genre. And let's be honest, most martial arts movies are pretty ****. Even Jackie Chan movies are hard to impress with all they get padded with.
So it really is a credit to the movie that it has a relatively decent story to pick it up in between the fights, but really, after rewatching it, it really feels like it takes a while to pick up, and it's not really altogether clear really really why really it has to really drag it's really ass really really really fo sheally.
*ahem*
It takes a while to really get into the gear and the first few fights are fairly mundane. Even the final showdown itself is best highlighted by Rothrock's character dying, a few lines of dialog, and a pretty overdone hangin' off a propeller plane stunt. I dunno. The fistfight in the first Indiana Jones was better and that wasn't even the climax.
Altogether it's a good movie, nothing really really really to write home about, but surely a short peak among martial arts movies, if not in Cynthia Rothrock's acting career.