Deadly Revenge - Das Brooklyn Massaker

This is Steven Seagal's best movie. In it, he actually wrestles with the character he plays, and comes up with a dramatic performance that, while no Brando, is still quite believable.

This is a very violent film. It is also a very troubling film. William Forsythe - who also turns in a better than average performance - plays a lower-rung mob boss who, strung out on crack and finding his girl-friend cheating on him, turns psychotic and suicidal. Not a good mix - he starts blowing people away just because they irritate him a little.

The film is also an attempt to deal with the continuing fragmentation of neighborhood communities that were once the heart and soul of larger cities. The community is preserved, but only tentatively - the seeds of its eventual collapse have clearly been planted. The extreme violence of the film thus becomes the manifestation of a unresolvable frustration with the tensions of a community falling apart.

All this adds up to a surprisingly complex Steven Seagal action film that will haunt you long after the closing credits.

This is one of those first few movies which represent Seagal's best. The story moves by quickly, the action never stops, and the quality is excellent.

Seagal's bombastic aikido style is a sure show-stopper. The action is so captivating that it almost renders the story unnecessary. The story consists of Seagal searching out the murderer of a friend. There are other elements to the plot, but that is the gist. It would do no good to attempt to detail the plot however, as the story is lost in a flurry of fists and knees.

If you are a fan of Seagal's bone-crunching, show-stopping, hard-hitting martial arts style, you will simply love this one.

Although this is quite pretentious and philosophically preachy, this has to be one of my absolute favorites of his older movies.

I love it!

It rates a 7.4 from...

the Fiend :.

****SPOILERS**** Outrageously violent, even for a Steven Seagal movie, as our "hero" Steven Seagal, Det. Gino Felino, is out looking for a coke-crazed hood Richie Madano, William Forsythe, and his not-too-bright gang who were responsible for murdering his partner Bobby Lupo, Joe Spatago, on a Brooklyn street in front of his wife and little boy. During the run of the movie Gino breaks every code of justice conduct and police department regulation on the books by busting up some two dozen hoods. Who for the most part tried to avoid the unstable and dangerous out of control policemen. Steven Seagal's Gino Felino even made the cop in the movie "Maniac Cop" look normal.

You wondered why Gino's boss Capt Donziger, Jerry Orbach, never as much as complained, much less suspended, the obviously crazed and homicidal detective and where was the citizens police review board in the movie, where they out to lunch or asleep? Even women weren't safe from the off-the-wall Gino with his brutalizing and humiliating Richie's sister Patti, Gina Gershon, and a bar girl who worked in her nightclub Terry, Shannon Whirry, who were totally innocent and had nothing to do with Bobby Lupo's murder. Even Richie's elderly parents were terrorized by the uncouth Gino even though later Gino apologized to them after the damage was already done, nice man that Gino. Like thats what it would take to make him a good guy in the movie.As for the coke-sniffing and crazy Richie he seemed to want to get caught and never made any attempt to get out of the city and just waited for the end to come partying in a hooker's apartment with his drugged out gang.

Watching Gino in action you wondered if even the Mafia would want him to work for them as a muscle man or enforcer? The Mob was far more civil professional and kinder when they dealt with the same hoods that Gino worked over in the movie.

It turned out that Gino's partner Bobby Lupo was killed by Richie for cheating on his wife by having an affair with Richie's woman Roxanne Ford, Julie Strain, and also, surprise, Bobby was a dirty cop on the take to, thats right, Richie's drug gang.

The final shoot out at Richie's "pad" was as ridicules as the rest of the movie with Gino taking on the entire Madano gang who were dangerous and armed to the teeth single handily and getting a bullet in his gut for the effort. Gino was either too crazy or stupid, or both, to bother to call the police to come to his aid. In fact it was the Mafia who came to the "rescue" after almost everyone of Richie's gang were killed.

Having it out with Richie Gino beats him to a pulp and then instead of trying to arrest the almost dead Richie drives what looks like a sharp screwdriver through his brain killing him. So much for Gino being "Out for Justice" like the movie title says.

For all his viciousness Gino did have his good points but they were at the very beginning and end of the movie. At the start of the movie "Out for Justice" Gino slams a vicious pimp against a brick wall and then throws him head-first into a car windshield. After the pimp brutalized one of his streetwalker for getting pregnant by one of her customers. At the end of the movie Gino let a guy have it who threw a puppy, that Gino later adopted, out of his moving car window by kicking him in his family jewels. As Gino and his wife walked away the puppy showed the creep who tried to kill him just what he thought of him.

This violent cop thriller begins when a Brooklyn police named Gino(Steven Seagal) is alerted when his best friend Bobby has been murdered by Richie(William Forsythe), a childhood ex-friend from old Brooklyn neighborhood. Gino tells his chief(Jerry Orbach) which he can encounter Richie and he set off in pursuit . Meanwhile,the Gino's spouse(Jo Champa) ask him the divorce . A doped Richie doesn't mind if he lives or dies and kills everybody around. The Italian mobsters are upset with him and they are looking for him, too. Richie is accompanied by his band(Jay Acanove, Robert Lasardo) taking the law on their own hands.

The film packs thrills, excessive violence, gory killing, profanity and bad language. N.Y. cop doesn't hesitate to utilize his martial arts skills as he fights violent drug dealing and battles corrupts killers and using his usual snapping wrists. This Seagal movie reveals the real-life Aikido master to be more of the Van Damme, Stallone style than the Stanislawski school of acting. Appear as secondary Jerry Orbach, recently deceased, and Shannon Whirry, a soft core star, who holds an alike countenance to Kelly Lebrock, Seagal's former wife. Furthermore, an uncredited, almost extras, John Leguizano, Raymond Cruz and Julie Strain. The Karate expert Seagal co-wrote the script, and co-produced along with Arnold Konpelson . Noisy musical score by means of synthesize, is in charge of David Marshall Frank. Director John Flynn who gave excellent performances to Tommy Lee Jones(Rolling Thunder), Robert Duval(Outfit), Jan Michael Vincent(Defiance), James Woods(Best seller), here gave credibility to Steven Seagal. The result is a strong outing for action enthusiastic.

Now this is action! Out for justice is more like out for revenge on home turf. Bloody, gritty, relentless, pulpy and whispering Steven Seagal (…at his concise best). Nice, but making it work is that action maestro John Flynn is at the helm where he makes great use of the authentic Brooklyn backdrop and implements some cracking in-your-face set-pieces of Seagal harassing, causing a mess (that's property damage) and then effortlessly busting body parts. Oh it's a great sound! He even manages a few amusing wisecracks or so, although I could have heard less of his character's moving childhood stories with some sort of philosophical message, but we're just seeing the sincere reflective side of the man. Even taking time out to look after a dumped puppy, while after an elusive criminal (that he knew through childhood) that's roaming Brooklyn and who brutally killed his partner / friend in cold-blood. I guess this is to counter balance the violence… and there's a lot of it. However Seagal is overshadowed by William Forsythe's dominating, hot-headed and vicious drug fuelled gangster. Definitely one of the most insane villains put on screen and Forsythe milks out every opportunity to display it. When these two characters finally come to blows, it doesn't disappoint. Director John Flynn keeps it lean, mean and quite explosive in a familiar but well done manner, as he knows when to up the ante and to let it settle. The music soundtrack was the only thing I found to get in the way at times, trying to be hip in its flavour. The rest of the cast is reasonably good with the likes of Jerry Orbach, Gina Gershon and Julianna Margulies showing up. An entertainingly unapologetic action joint