This was, in my opinion, one of Seagal's best ever. The story was great, the fight scenes were superb, the supporting cast was probably the best ever in any Seagal movie. To this day, any time I see William Forsyth in a movie, I immediately see "Richie"; he pulled that part off probably better than anyone else could have. Also had some help from Jerry Orbach, a young Julianne Marguiles, a considerably-younger Raymond Cruz, and even a stick-fighting scene with Danny Inosanto, longtime friend and student of Bruce Lee (who had a very memorable stick-fighting/nunchaku-fighting scene with Bruce Lee in _Game of Death_). Even Seagal proved in this one that he could portray some emotion (and no, I'm not referring to the laughable onion-tears he had after seeing his best friend's dead body on the sidewalk). His intensity in this particular film was on display more than any other (that I can recall off the top of my head), and he actually came across as being almost unbridled rage at what had happened. It was a refreshing change to see him actually show some emotion for once, to actually fight like he **wanted** to hurt people, as opposed to being his usual emotionless _"I'm only stopping you from hurting ME..."_ character. I understand that aikido - and martial arts in general - is about controlling your emotions and not allowing anger to direct what you do, but in this case it was nice to see him portray a man who was emotionally invested in what had happened, and what he was going to do about it. I also felt the "struggle" between Gino (Seagal's character) and the mob as to who would take care of the "Richie problem" (and how) was an interesting twist; just seemed to add a bit of depth to what could have been an otherwise kind-of stale story. I've watched this one multiple times (just watched it again tonight) and it never gets old. Absolutely one of Seagal's best.