I quite enjoyed this new little cheap crime Thriller starring Steven Seagal, DMX & Johnny Messner.

This low-budget B-movie Crime Thriller was actually shot really well & didn't look too cheap like alot of these films do look. It's a gritty & violent movie with a dark mood & the most deep & gravelly voiced actors in one movie I've ever seen. Ex-action legend, Steven Seagal is more a background character here as he plays a high-up mob boss with a son who is a deranged killer who listens to no one & kills a boy in cold blood, that brings the boys tough father out to their city to find who did it & seek revenge. The gravelly voiced & very rugged, Johnny Messner (Anacondas: Hunt For The Blood Orchid) is the boys tough father, Frank Wilson, an ex-cop with a sordid past but a deadly man & is now on the hunt for his son's killer. Ex-Rapper turned B-movie actor, DMX stars as a corrupt cop called Munce, he's a dirty cop & someone Frank used to know on the force. DMX starred in the early 2000's Awesome "Exit Wounds" with Steven Seagal & he was quite a good action star then but now he's aged & seems abit lost but it's a nothing role really anyway. Now like i said Steven Seagal isn't a main lead here but when he's on screen he speaks alot of truth & comes across wise & very tough, i really liked his performance here as he had to speak more & actually act!!! He does one small action scene near the end & that's it. Some solid Action & a very gritty vibe make "Beyond The Law" a decent straight to dvd flick, it's basically a revenge Thriller in the style that "Charles Bronson" probably would've made back in the day.

BEYOND THE LAW sees Steven Seagal going back to basics, but I don't mean that in a good way. In a return to the days of TICKER, he spends almost the entire running sat in a club, only stirring for a final fight sequence. He does his whispering thing in a supporting role as a criminal kingpin, but his role is so small it's obvious he's only included for name value. The main story sees Johnny Messner hunting for the person who murdered his kid, and other B-movie veterans including DMX and Patrick Kilpatrick show up along the way. There's very little action here and the plot is entirely cliched.

Augustino 'Finn' Adair (Steven Seagal) runs a drug syndicate from his desk in a place known as "That City." His son Desmond Packard (Zack Ward) is his punk son. Desmond and his gang kill Chance (Chester Rushing ) over his gambling debts. although Chance keeps opening his eyes while on the slab. Turns out Chance's father is former dirty cop Frank Wilson (Johnny Messner) who wants justice. DMX (Detective Ray Munce) plays the detective on the case because 50 cent's acting skill has improved to the point he is better than Segal who doesn't like to be shown up on the screen.

This is another Seagal film where he doesn't have to move too much and certainly no leg kicks. He sports his same goatee and "Eddie Munster" style of hair, although with Seagal's comedy style I would say he should be wearing an Ish Kabibble style of hair. My heart goes out to Bill Cobbs who did a good performance in spite of the world crumbling around him. He most likely will never be invited back to do another Segal film. The film is as heavy with tough guy cliche lines that I found unintentionally comical like Seagal lecturing his son.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.