Above the Law [DVD] [1986] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

I absolutely love Yuen Biao, in fact; I think he may be the most underappreciated GREAT martial artist ever. So it pains me to say that this movie is altogether mediocre at the very best. None of the acting is good enough to make any of the characters compelling and the dialogue is jilted and forced(even for this type of film) when not busy being downright painful. As another reviewer mentioned, the stunt work and fight scenes seem overly edited and even sloppy at times. The music... oh boy, this may be as bad as I've ever heard(stock tunes or even nails on a chockboard would've been preferred) and is literally bad enough to dock the movie a star all on its own. All that being said, you do get some good and even great action. The first fight between Yuen and Cynthia Rothrock is fast and tight and they compliment each others styles well. The next solo fight Yuen takes on former kickboxing champ Peter Cunningham in a brutal give-and-take fight with plenty of big shots and broken glass. My favorite Yuen part was the entire parking garage scene that begins with him being ran down by cars before breaking into a brawl against a bunch of goons. Shocking to me though, was that arguably the best fight of the movie is a ladies only scrum between Rothrock and Sheperd! I would agree with fellow reviewer Morgoth when he states that it's "one of the better woman on woman fights of all time." If you are a fan of Yuen or just martial arts action movies in general you could certainly do worse, but this is far from the best the genre has to offer. For all those looking for a review for the Steven Seagel film of the same name... sorry to waste your time (and sorry you're looking for that!).

This movie, directed by Corey Yuen, the master of developing "fun" fight scenes. The movie stars a younger Yuen Biao, Cynthia Rothrock, Karen Sheppard, Pete Cunningham just to name a few. The plot, predictable, the dialogue whether in English or Cantonese, is often obvious and not very clever; but, this movie, judged on its own terms excel where many of this genre fails. There is a plot and the fighting is always in relation to it.

And, it is here, in the fight scenes that one can indulge in martial mayhem! This is a young Rothrock and she is at some of her best (actually, her Hong Kong films far surpass any of her American work). The fight scene with Karen Sheppard is just fantastic! There is so litle work of Sheppard on film, that this makes the movie even more of a treat. Of course, Biao is great and one will enjoy his fight scene against Pete Cunningham.

These fights are great and fun and Rothrock and Biao fans will you it.

Yuen Biao stars as a vigilante defense attorney. When all of his witnesses are killed, he looks to take matters into his own hands. Cynthia Rothrock stars a mahjong playing, kung fu fighting policewoman, and Melvin Wong stars as the dirty police chief. The story has many illogical things happening, but if you have seen a lot of Hong Kong films, you know they do whatever they have to do to move onto the next fight scene. Fan Siu Wong has a great role as a young punk. He doesn't get to do any action, but it is pretty hard to believe that this is the same kid who only 5 years later would attain a physique that even Bruce Lee would have marveled at. So to sum the movie up briefly, Biao and Rothrock finally figure out Melvin Wong is the bad guy, and it all leads to a spectacular finish.

The story is not bad, but the action is definitely the best thing about this movie. Yuen Biao gives one of his very best physical performances, and Rothrock has a few nice fights including one of the better woman on woman fights of all time against Karen Sheperd. I always love to see the chain rope in action, and Karen Sheperd seems to be very skilled using it. Peter "Sugarfoot" Cunningham plays an assassin and has my favorite fight of the movie against Biao. They don't pull any punches and it is very intense. The final fight is good, but then there is a thrilling chase sequence that I was not expecting at all. Don't give up on this movie half way through if you don't like it, the last 30 minutes are worth a watch for any fan of action cinema.

3.5/5

Picture and sound quality are VERY good, and big thanks to Dragon Dynasty for including the original Cantonese mono track.

Special features are as good as it gets. The alternate ending is interesting, the commentary from Bey Logan is filled with good information, and the interviews are worth the price of the DVD alone. 18 minutes with Peter Cunningham, 17 with Yuen Biao, and 13 with Rothrock. All the interviews are so good, I can't name a favorite. There is no way I could go over all the great things that are brought up, but here is a small taste of Rothrock's interview- "Yuen Kwai (the director) was a lot tougher on me than Sammo Hung. I would tell him I don't think I can do this and he would say yes you can, practice here for 2 hours."