MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Justice’ a Seagal That’s a Cut Above

There’s a sense, in most cop-vs.-psycho movies, of the antagonists as opposite sides of a bloody coin. That’s what happens in the new Steven Seagal action-thriller “Out for Justice” (citywide).

In most ways, it’s the usual rough-and-ugly, slam-bang, blood-soaked cop-vs.-psycho vendetta saga, begining with a pimp hurled through a car window and ending with a dog relieving himself on a knocked-out bully. In between, there’s a parade of carnage ranging from simple assault, brain-banging and hand-slicing through every degree of murder known to man. But it entertained me more than Seagal’s first three movies. There’s more verbal energy and atmosphere, more humor: in-your-face, scabrous, wise-guy macho humor. The movie opens with an epigram from playwright Arthur Miller about Brooklyn neighborhoods, and, seconds later, when it shows Seagal as hipster cop Gino Felino, he seems steeped in the milieu.

Gino is a cop who could have been a hood--one of his childhood friends actually made it in the Mafia--and the movie quickly links the cop to his opposite number: William Forsythe as Richie Madano, a free-basing, trigger-happy mad dog.

Both cop and crook, in alternate scenes, begin wreaking havoc on practically everyone else--Richie on Gino’s friends and the public at large, Gino on the underworld--until their bloody spree merges in a twin stream of unstoppable pathology.

Back in the ‘70s, director John Flynn matched Paul Schrader scripts with Martin Scorsese: he made “Rolling Thunder,” Scorsese made “Taxi Driver.” Here, he has a script, by David Lee Henry, that seems drenched in Scorsese influence: the Italo-American swagger, the live-wire gutter profanity, the casually humorous or stinging approach to violence. Most of all, there’s the sense of the neighborhood.

It probably won’t appeal to anyone beyond the usual hard-core action crowd. It’s profane, vulgar, sadistic, low-down mean and scrungy. But there’s a snap and knowingness to “Out of Justice” (MPAA rated R, for sex, violence and language) that puts it a cut--a hack, a chop, a gut-puncturing kick--above the other Seagal movies. Just a cut.

‘Out for Justice’

Steven Seagal: Gino Felino

William Forsythe: Richie Madano

Jerry Orbach: Det. Donziger

Jo Campa: Vicky Felino

A Warner Brothers presentation of an Arnold Kopleson/Steven Seagal production. Director John Flynn. Producer Steven Seagal, Arnold Kopleson. Executive producer Julius R. Nasso. Screenplay by David Lee Henry. Cinematographer Ric Waite. Editor Robert A. Ferretti. Music David Michael Frank. Production design Gene Rudolph. Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (Sex, language, violence).