365 Movies Day #92 "Beyond the Law"

Awhile back I gave Emilio Estevez props for his work on "WISDOM" and made a crack at Charlie Sheen. Well, I'm here to give the man his due with praise for his biker/cop classic, "Beyond the Law".

Based on a true story (the actual Dan Saxon worked on the film) about an undercover cop who infiltrates the inner circle of a criminal motorcycle gang, this film is an awesome predecessor to "Sons of Anarchy" and an interesting sister flick to Brian Bosworth and Lance Heneriksen's "Stone Cold", which came out around the same time, but is much more campy and over the top.

Sheen plays a convincing role as a guy in over his head (probably drew from some life experience) and trying to do the right thing. His love interest is played by the lovely Linda Fiorentino ("Men in Black") and the leader of the biker gang is played by always charismatic and cool, Michael Madsen (who even managed to play a cool character in the abominable biker flick "Hell Ride"). I'm surprised this is the first time Mr. Madsen has made it into the blog. I'm sure he'll be back.

Also interesting to note is that Rip Torn makes an appearance in this film and he would work with Fiorentino again 5 years later on MIB. The film is directed and penned by Larry Furgeson who gave us the script for Russel Mulcahy's "Highlander" (the original good one) and also wrote the somewhat disappointing non-Hicks "Alien 3". Good film, but no Hicks? What the heck?

Overall, this is a great story (probably because a lot of it is true) with good performances by Sheen and company. Definitely should check it out if you haven't seen it.

Definitely WINNING for Charlie here!


BEYOND THE LAW ON IMDB