Seagalogy: The Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal

I go back and forth on whether this is as good as Above the Law or Hard to Kill, but it definitely has a bunch of Seagal’s best scenes and moments. The fights are great, with Hatcher throwing people all over the place, taking on multiple people at the same time and continuing to get more brutal. There are numerous broken limbs, a severed head and the unforgettable death of Screwface II. Hatcher stabs a guy with his own knife, hits a guy in the head with a sledge hammer and impales a guy’s throat with a skewer. If you watch it with the English subtitles for the hearing impaired you will get to see the sound effect “[vertebrae crack].”

One spectacular action moment in the script that I’m sure turned out to be too Hard to Shoot was one where Storm runs across a row of parked cars, leaps “through the air like a night eagle – setting what looks like a new world record in the long jump” and cracks a guy’s neck, killing him instantly. The best part about this awesome move is that it would’ve been the first time his son saw him in seven years. Quite an entrance.

a scenario that would become very familiar over later films, Nico chases some guys into a mini-mart and ends up destroying every shelf or glass surface in the joint beating them down. There’s a classic slo-mo shot where he jumps through the front window using a thug to shield him from the glass. Variations on this stunt will show up in many, many other Seagal films over the years. The scene is an insult to private business owners but a delight to action fans.