Before Steven Seagal started playing guitar and pimping energy drinks, he used to make decent mindless action films and 1991's Out For Justice stands as one of his best. Granted, Seagal is still making movies, but let's face it, the quality level has dropped substantially since the nineties came to a close and it would appear that his glory days are far behind him. Poor Steve. Let's live in the past for a few minutes and remember this one fondly without dwelling on the present day disaster his film career has become...

Seagal plays a strong, silent detective named Gino Felino (say it out loud, it's fun!) who works his beat and takes his job seriously. When his partner is shot down by a crack-fueled hood named Ritchie (played by William Forsythe) he takes matters into his own hands. It seems that Gino's partner isn't Ritchie's only victim, in fact, he's on a bit of a killing spree and so Gino makes it his mission to bring the man and his cohorts in, dead or alive. Along the way, a lot of people get hurt and/or killed and everyone swears.

Out For Justice is not a legitimately good movie but it's so damned entertaining that you can't help but love it if you're at all a fan of trashy action films. Granted, this movie had some dollars behind it and was backed by a major studio but this film feels like Cannon Films-style exploitation all the way. From the ridiculously gratuitous violence to the insane amount of cursing to the racial stereotypes to the completely by-the-numbers plot, Out For Justice is complete trash in every regard - which is precisely why it's so much fun.

Seagal wanders through the film mumbling his dialogue in that special way of his and beating the snot out of everyone, whether they deserve it or not. Physically, he's in pretty good shape here and the fight scenes actually remind us that once upon a time he was a good action hero. The violence in the film is blunt and tasteless with the camera lingering on bloody bullet exists and broken limbs with both Seagal's character and Forsythe's character dealing out their fair share of carnage. The only semi-cerebral part of the film is how closely the cop mimics the bad guy here, and in that regard the film might make you think just a little bit about how far an officer of the law should be able to go but as soon as you start thinking, the movie will make sure you stop just as quickly by nailing you with another shoot out of barrage of profanity. Honestly, the film is probably a better experience because of that, because if you start thinking too much about anything Out For Justice related you'll start to realize how bad it all is.

That said, John Flynn (who directed the amazing Rolling Thunder and the abysmal Brainscan) does keep the action coming at a very quick pace. The film, as bad and as trashy as it is, does build a bit of suspense and it definitely gives you what you'd expect from a Seagal movie. The emphasis is on mindless violence and cold hearted revenge rather than anything intelligent but if you enjoy these types of films, (personal bias - this reviewer most certainly does!) then it doesn't get a whole lot better. It's a trash film, it's almost completely by the numbers, and it's extremely exploitative - but it's fun. Guilty pleasure or not, Out For Justice delivers exactly what you'd want it to.

Video:

Warner presents Out For Justice in it's original aspect ratio of 2.40.1, in full 1080pVC-1 but sadly, this transfer is rather unremarkable when compared to other HD-DVDs out there. You'll notice an improvement in background detail over the standard-definition release and color reproduction doesn't look bad but the darker nighttime scenes, of which there are plenty, are more than a little bit murky looking. The blacks on this transfer look blotchy and noisy, not smooth like they should and as such, a lot of the fine detail ends up getting washed out and this definitely affects the overall image quality on this release. Granted, this is definitely a step up from the aforementioned standard-definition release but the picture, during the darker scenes at least, doesn't look nearly as good as it should have. Lighter scenes are fine and don't look bad at all but so much of this film takes place at night that the inconsistent black levels are a very obvious problem.