"Anybody seen Richie?!?"
Seagal is something of a joke today, but in his moviemaking prime, he was a major badass. His first feature, ABOVE THE LAW, directed in Chicago by Andrew Davis (THE FUGITIVE), is one of modern cinema's great screen debuts, and Seagal continued to make solid action films up through at least his laughable directorial debut, ON DEADLY GROUND.
John Flynn, who passed away last week, directed one of Seagal's best movies. In OUT FOR JUSTICE, Seagal plays an Italian-American police detective from Brooklyn who chases psycho crackhead murderer William Forsythe around the city. In one of the movie's standout scenes, Seagal walks into a poolroom, talks shit to several dozen hoods, and challenges the whole damn building to a fight, offering his badge as a trophy. If you have six minutes to kill (and headphones, if you're at work), check out what he can do with some pool balls and a busted cue.
It's true that Seagal got fat and lazy and pretentious when he hit middle age, but back in the day, he was The Man.
Still one of my favorite fight scenes. Thanks for reminding me I need to watch this movie again.
ReplyDeletehe is not aging well. last time i saw him he looked older. shatner looks better than he does. poor guy. i did just watch one of his bad ass movies the other day.
ReplyDeleteone of my favorite scenes of him is in executive decision. he gets sucked out of a plane near the beginning of the movie. kick ass death scene.