Review by Dragan Antulov
2 stars out of 4
There is time for peace and there is time for war. There is
time for movies that take cautious approach to sensitive and
complex issues and there is time for movies in which Good
Guys kick the living daylights out of Bad Guys without
burdening themselves with any serious contemplation. The
time in which we are living is the time for the latter, so
movies like OUT FOR JUSTICE, directed in 1991 by John Flynn,
would be more than appropriate.
The protagonist of this film is Gino Felino (played by
Steven Seagal), New York police detective who grew up on the
mean streets of Brooklyn. His marriage is just about to end,
but family issues suddenly take second place when he hears
the news about his partner and best friend Bobby Lupo
(played by Joe Spatara) getting brutally murdered in front
of his family. Since the perpetrator - crack-smoking and
ultraviolent Mafioso wannabe Richy Madano (played by William
Forsythe) - has already been identified, the investigation
actually turns into manhunt. Both police and Mafia take part
in it, but hardly anyone shows the zeal equal to Felino who
uses various (mostly violent) methods in order to extract
information about Madano's whereabouts. As Felino begins to
close in, Madano and his small but vicious gang of street
decide to hit back by targeting Felino's family.
Steven Seagal is arguably one of the worst actors in
present-day Hollywood and his reputation wasn't helped by
the projects in which his ambitions turned out to be way
higher than his abilities. Thankfully, OUT FOR JUSTICE,
which he co-produced and co-wrote (including few song
lyrics) is not one of them. Weak standard plot about
policeman who avenges the death of his partner is nothing
more than an excuse for the series of scenes in which Seagal
displays what he knows best - taking care of any individual
or group foolish enough to challenge him in a various forms
of physical combat. The script lacks the usual preaching
tone of other Seagal's movies and the mean streets of
Brooklyn are used more to provide exotic flavour to the
setting than to serve as an illustration of drug addiction,
crime, violence and other social ailments of pre-Giuliani
New York. Instead of moralising, film presents things like
corruption and symbiotic relationship between police and
organised crime as something quite natural and, at times,
even beneficial to the society. And, naturally, in a
situation when everyone wants to see quick justice done,
issues like civil liberties and police procedure are thrown
through the window. Steven Seagal's character might be
obnoxious, intimidating and ultraviolent and the only thing
that actually align him to the forces of Good (apart from
couple of obviously manipulative attempts to show his
sensitive, altruistic side) is the fact that the villains
are even worse and, consequently, can be dealt only by
higher doses of their own medicine. Because of that
otherwise good character actor William Forsythe goes over
the top in his portrayal of homicidal cokehead. On the other
hand, other actors are quite solid in their roles, even when
they are thankless, like those of Madano's brother and
sister, played by Anthony De Sando and Gina Gershon.
Director John Flynn is more than able to keep things under
control and the film goes quite smoothly for 90 minutes,
leaving hardly any time for audience to pick various flaws
in the film. In the end, authors of OUT FOR JUSTICE can be
forgiven for cliched storyline, cartoonish characters and
ridiculous amounts of senseless violence - few films managed
to show how Good can defeat Evil in such a simple and
entertaining way.
Copyright © 2001 Dragan Antulov
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