Customer Reviews

Mercenary for Justice

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The theatrical release is no longer the benchmark for success for an actor since fewer people see films in theatres and many rather "big" names are now making DTV films: IE. Hillary Swank, Chuck Norris, Demi Moore etc. They are just beginning to find out what Seagal has known for quite a while. The issue was that some, not all, of Seagal's DTV films were lacking in quality, and perhaps only worthy of a DTV release. However, "Black Dawn" was a production that changed that poor quality trend, and "Mercenary" proves to be an even better follow up than "Dawn." Seagal's critics might as well be shoveling smoke if they continue on with the tired redundant insults now, because he is obviously having the last laugh, with a vengeance. Like "Dawn", this film has good production, but unlike "Dawn", and fortunately, this film has a lot of hand to hand combat with no doubles, no dubbing, sleek production, an intricate plot, cool locations, etc. Note: This is hands down the most violent of Seagal's films, with an exhausting body count, but the core of it has a redemptive story which I am sure Seagal would not have any other way. He could do better, but he could also do a lot worse. If he keeps going in this direction, then this Icon has a lot of fight left in him.

I am not sure why everyone is ripping this movie apart. In its own class (other Mid to Lower Budget Direct to Video) this movie ranks as one of the best. Seagal's best effort since "Into the Sun" (after such disasters as "The Foreigner" and "Out For A Kill") Seagal fans should be happy. Good action sequences, Bad Dialogue, and lots of violence...What else are people expecting? Snow Falling on Cedars? The fight sequences are actually Seagal instead of some obvious stunt double, and the one-liners are better. Decent action flick.

Not as good as Belly Of The Beast but for me this is Seagals second best DTV yet. He is back doing his own fight scenes, minimal dialogue dubbing and the odd flash of Seagals personality comes through. The last third of the movie is taken up with all action as Seagal goes to the main villain's hideout to take him out. The movie opens with a well executed all action setup with helicopters and tanks by Seagal DTV movie standards, continues the action sequences all throughout the movie with a nice bank heist set piece half way through but does stretch believability a little. However Mercenary For Justices biggest draw back is again like most of Seagals DTV movies, the script. I have no idea why or what was going on for the opening 20 minutes of this movie. We have Seagal and his team of mercs caught in a big firefight then another team of mercs captures the French Ambassador and his family and appears to be bringing them back to Seagal. Then the merc team who captured the French Ambassador blows him up along with his family??? This merc team appears to be working with Seagal?? Seagals buddy gets killed ala Into The Sun and Seagal calls the helicopter backup to pick them all up. Why didn't he call it earlier??? Once Seagal is back from his mission his buddy's family is kidnapped by the movies main villain and they force Seagal to take a mission for them. This is where the movie begins correctly for me as I have no clue what all the previous stuff was about other than for Seagals buddy to get killed? Other than this Mercenary For Justice is what Seagal fans have been demanding from Seagals DTV movies, action, almost no Seagal dubbing and Seagal on screen fighting even if the camera in this case is a little to close to fully appreciate Seagals moves. He is still over weight and is still lumbered with bad scripts and he is still one dimensional in his dialogue delivery but he has been making quality improvements in his latest DTV's compared to Submerged and to an extent Today You Die. It also drags a little in the middle especially as we get a True Lies scene with Seagal dancing with the drop dead gorgeous Jacqueline Lord. Also a scene in a prison during a double cross is very similar to the scene in Alcatraz from The Rock. Mercenary For Justice is not perfect and it's quality for me is measure to Belly Of The Beast which is by no means one of Seagals best either. Seagal fans who have stuck with him this far should be very happy with Mercenary For Justice. Others will only find the usual things to laugh at found in all of Seagal DTV movies.

The first thirty minutes of the film will make your head spin as several plots are thrown at you all at once. It opens with a high CIA agent working with a mercenary boss to help topple an African government with the use of expendable mercenaries. They do it so they can get rich off of oil and diamonds (oh brother...) but things go wrong when French commandos (who are about as well trained as Vietcong, apparently) are flown in to stop the mercenaries from toppling the government. In response some of the mercenaries kidnap the French ambassador, (easily taking down the THREE guards...) but this fails when the truck carrying the ambassador and his family is blown up. The mercenaries are left on their own and escape on a helicopter. Guess who's among them? Steven Seagal himself, whose character is described as the "most decorated hero of the Gulf War." (HA!)

Cut to a while later. Seagal is comforting the widow and son of one of his fellow mercenaries who died in the last battle, and then he gets abducted by the mercenary boss he used to work for. It's then revealed that the mercenary boss has captured the widow and son of Seagal's buddy to convince Seagal to work one more job. It turns out that the son of a Greek arms dealer has been arrested and is being transferred from a top South African jail to Ft. Leavenworth. (huh?) The mercenaries have been hired to break him out at any cost. Meanwhile, an old romantic fling of Seagal has been captured by the same CIA operative as before and is being used to trap Seagal so he doesn't reveal past and present scandals.

Whew! OK, there, it took me two long paragraphs to describe the first thirty minutes.

Any way, Seagal soon turns things against his opponents, teaming up with old buddies within the group and sneaking into a bank to reveal the truth about the corrupt CIA agent and mercenary boss AND saving his partner's family. It all works out because Steven Seagal is clever and a heck of a fighter...um, wait, scratch that. It works because the script says it does, and actors have to follow the script.

"Mercenary for Justice" has about one thing going for it: lots of action, and admittedly it's often entertaining. If you want to see dead bodies get thrown around (literally) then this is the film for you. It's definately a lot more entertaining than some of Seagal's modern works, like "Out of Reach." That's the ONLY reason I've given it three stars. If it had not had that, it would have been given one star for it's many faults. One is the acting, which is terrible across the board. The one that stood out the most was Luke Goss, who plays the mercenary boss like he's trying to imitate Richard Harris. Then of course there's Seagal, who just flat-out STINKS in this movie. I can shrug off his trademark emotionless voice, but apparently he was supposed to have a southern accent in this film. I don't really know, because in some scenes he has it and in some scenes he doesn't. It's like they filmed those scenes with the accent first then said, "Uh, yeah, you're not doing it too well, just forget it," and continued filming. Ironically the best actor in this whole thing is Adrian Galley as Bulldog - ironic because he goes through half of the movie not saying anything.

Besides the acting, there's the whole moral issue with this movie. Someone reviewing another Seagal film brought up the "cover rule" of action movies: a hero in an action movie is only considered the hero because he's on the front cover. You get some sense of that here. Seeing Steven Seagal take out wave after wave of French commandos may be forgivable since he's defending himself, but later on when he's killing all these South African policemen you're left wondering if his character really has any sense of life. Think of this: what if he had told the South African police chief (who is portrayed as an uncorrupt fellow) about the CIA and mercenaries, and set up a trap at the jail and allowed him access to the bank. That way less people would have died, as oppposed to what Seagal did, which was allow a lot of South African police at the jail to become fodder and then take out a lot more police at the bank. Considering the police are NOT bad guys, but just cops doing their job and hunting down who they think are dangerous criminals, doesn't this all seem a little dark? And then we're supposed to feel warm and happy that he would go save his buddy's wife and son? Why doesn't he just use them as pawns in his scheme as well? Oh yeah, I forgot, because then that would be "evil."

If you get the DVD then make sure to see the "Making of" featurette. Director Don E. FauntLeRoy's stumbling over his opening comments ("Steven Seagal...he's like an idol man, he's an idol...") answered a lot of questions I had about the film's style. Even funnier are all the comments the crew and cast give to Steven Seagal, namely about how amazing he is. One of them says that Seagal's always trying to find a way to make the film better. (he doesn't do a very good job) Another one says something along the lines of, "A lot of action stars are fake, but Seagal is for real. He's a real kung fu artist." GIMME A BREAK!! In most of his recent films, any time a simple stunt like jumping over a fence or sliding down a rope is filmed, a look-alike replaces him. Not to mention that most of Seagal's moves nowadays consist of grabbing a guy by the arm and punching him (this happens about ten times in this movie alone) and most of the time it only looks like it works because the director has filmed it to. This is all combined with the fact that Seagal has packed on a lot of weight since his early days, and it's just not as believable to see him beating up people twice as young and most likely just as strong as he is. It's also not very believably to see young female characters swoon over this large, mumbling, mossy-haired, 50-year old man.

Consider this: Jackie Chan is about Seagal's age, yet he's in tip top shape. He also does all his own moves - in the movie "Operation Condor" there's a scene where he jumps over a tall gate with only the use of his legs - and he really did that! He doesn't need someone to come in and replace him with all the camera shots changed so the audience doesn't catch on. I have to also admit that the stuff Jackie Chan does in his mid-50's is way more exciting and even more amazing than stuff he did in his 20's. So I don't want to hear, "Go easy on him, he's old" or "He's really talented!" Once upon a time he was amazing, now it's no longer believable. And yes, I will freely admit I'm not in tip-top shape myself, but you don't see me in movies beating up tons of people.

As I said before, you should only watch this movie if you want to see a corny action flick. It delivers on that regard. If you go expecting a good movie or you're hoping Seagal's come back from his direct-to-video hell, I can only point at you and laugh.

Good movie I bought it used and shipping was great and the dvd was in great shape THANK YOU!!

We, Sid the Elf, are worried that Steven Segal, the early favorite for a 2008 woody, will take a reduced acting role in the new B he's now producing. Don't do it Segal! Sid needs you in Unintentional Comedies like fans of your smooth ballads need you to keep pumping out albums. Yeah, albums. Segal actually took time away from his lucrative film and competitive eating careers to make sweet sweet baby-making music.

This is why Mercenary for Justice fell short of Sid's lofty expectations for a Segal flick. He just wasn't in it enough. This movie had a killer ending, which was the only part of the plot that revolved around Segal, of course that might be because the man has his own gravitational pull at this point. There is one point when they show him from a profile view in a suit. He has a distinctly white Biggie Smalls on the cover of Life After Death vibe. Which brings up another point. Since when did Segal start talking like he's black? I guess all those years of working with illustrious actors such as Treach, DMX, and Ja Rule have taken their toll on our favorite portly-size action star. Segal is like aging adult-film star at this point. The camera angle has to be perfect, and the action better be sped up to keep the viewer um...interested. Like we said in our Urban Justice review they need to do some very fancy camera work to make a 285 pound senior appear to be moving quickly.

So, Sid's final thoughts: this is a movie that makes no sense whatsoever. But, if you're looking for a movie to pop in and get some unintentional comedy laughs at, look no further than Mercenary for Justice; starring Steven Segal, his huge pot belly, and his Michael Myers wig.

"Mercenary for Justice" has a lot of things going for it: it skips the more obvious production snafus of Steven Seagal's DTV exploits, has a pretty good supporting cast to show up the star, and has an overall tone of wanting to succeed - more so than the tired, voiced-over attempts that bookend it (Attack Force, Black Dawn). On the other hand, the film suffers from a lack of focus that eventually disintegrates a promising story into little more than a wannabe-smart-but-actually-dumb vehicle for Seagal, and makes the movie's unsatisfying action content painfully clear.

The story's a bit of a doozy, but here goes: John Seeger (Seagal) is an ex-military mercenary who's strong-armed into a controversial mission by threats to the lives of his deceased best friend's family. Ordered to join a team of guns-for-hire to break a rich arms-dealer's son out of prison, Seeger is double-crossed when his bosses reveal their ulterior motive - prompting Seeger to fight back in his own way.

The film's first 20 minutes are its highlight: the massive, Black Hawk Down-inspired shootout is probably the most professional-looking scene that's ever been featured in Seagal's DTV career, and is definitely something I had never seen him involved in before. It's extremely well done for this kind of movie, and effectively starts it off with promise. Sadly, the action takes a turn for the mundane, and we're left with a remaining 70 minutes of repetitive shootouts, throat-slitting, and a sloppy hand-to-hand fight scene in a bathroom. While the gunplay remains decent, the fact that the majority of the casualties counted by Seagal are police officers, prison guards, security personnel, and various other non-bad guys puts a bit of a disappointing dent in the "Justice" part of the title. Seagal is supposed to be a good guy!

As for the acting, it's a bit of a hit & miss: without mentioning mumbly Seagal, there's Luke Goss ("Hellboy 2"), Roger Guenveur Smith (A Huey P. Newton Story), Michael Williams (The Wire: The Complete Series), Adrian Galley (The Deal), and Langley Kirkwood (Final Solution) getting a piece of the action, and they all generally do well with their roles. Still, you can't help but wonder whether a talent like Goss was miscast as a pathetic CIA producer when he's capable of kicking butt in his other movies...

What really brings the film down, however, is the plot's overcomplication: while it kind of makes sense when you think about it after the film has ended, trying to understand the motives, relationships between the characters, and exactly who's doing what is a real chore whilst watching. For example, when Seagal begins to get a few up on his adversaries, you don't know at once that he's doing it because there's no explanation to the villains' misfortunes until five minutes later. This happens more than once, and kills the satisfaction of watching the evildoers get theirs - a plot tool that's one of the few things that Seagal is really good at.

In all, I'm not surprised that Seagal and director Don FauntLeRoy pulled off Urban Justice as their next attempt, for "Mercenary for Justice" showed a lot of promise. Alas, that's all it really is - promises that aren't fulfilled. I wish very much that a different writer had been hired - I have no doubt that the plot could've been delivered better by somebody who had done more than work on short films before he undertook a full-length feature. For what it's worth, this one's staying on my shelf...but it doesn't stand a good chance of overtaking any other film up there anytime soon.

Great movie, lots of action. Steven Seagal is simply the best of the best. Nice plot and story lines and great actors.

Whether it be film or dtv, Steven Seagal continues to provide his fans what they want: Action, a moral where the good guy wins over the bad guy by beating him at his own game...namely fighting violence with violence.

This turned out to be a much better movie than I expected and I'll ditto much of the positive remarks made by others. But I do have one comment or complaint:

Steven.........use a different color dye on your hair!!!! It doesn't work bro......

That's it. Otherwise a good popcorn movie to be sure!!!

With a half decent story, competently executed action scenes, and moderately interesting characters, Mercenary For Justice (2005) is an action flick you can watch without constantly thinking about how far Steven Seagal has fallen from his glory days. The direct to video release, teams Seagal and director Don E. FauntLeRoy together for the fifth time. Shot on location in South Africa, Mercenary For Justice is not great film, but it still remains notable, simply for not being as terrible as some of the aikido practitioner's more recent efforts.

The story is rather complicated, as Anthony Chapel (Roger Guenveur Smith) puts together a team of mercenaries for a top secret mission in Africa. Included in the operation is mercenary John Seeger (Seagal), and Maxine Barnol (Jacqueline Lord) working undercover as a reporter. Unfortunately things go very wrong, and the operation is a disaster with numerous fatalities. Behind it all is John Dresham (Luke Goss) of the CIA, whom Seeger blames for the failure.

Chapel's next job is to affect the release of the son of an arms dealer being held in a prison in South Africa, and he pressures Seeger into joining his team, by abducting the family of close friend. The team arrives in Cape Town with just a few days to complete their mission. Dresham has persuaded Maxine to cooperate with him, and the pair are also in Cape Town investigating at a bank that Dresham believes Seeger intends to rob. The assault of Randveld prison moves forward with Chapel's men executing Seeger's plan, buy they there are in for a surprise, as the jailbreak doesn't go down as expected. Meanwhile, Seeger's splinter group raids the bank, and after completing a number of financial transactions, manages to escape. The film concludes with the pursuit of Chapel, and the rescue of the hostages. Logic and realism isn't a major factor, but events still manage to play out without becoming a total mess.

Seagal looks a bit overweight, and his fight scenes aren't that impressive, but at least it appears that he is doing most of his own fighting, and camera tricks and editing are minimally employed to make him appear to move faster. The supporting cast is pretty good, particularly Jacqueline Lord, a smart and classy beauty, who can not only act, but also handles the action work well. As Chapel, Roger Guenveur Smith provides a low key kind of menace.

Seagal's films rarely have any extras, so the fifteen minute making of featurette on Mercenary For Justice is kind of a treat. There's some fluffy praise and admiration for Mr. Seagal and his flashy fists, and also some good dirt, like how some of the action scenes at the prison were shot. It's not much when compared to most other films, and Seagal speaks only briefly, but it's better than the goose egg that is usually found on Seagal's releases.

Although the complicated screenplay has a number of shaky spots, it manages to hold together without completely fragmenting, as the story actually displays some touches of style and finesse. The acting is above average for a Seagal film, helping to make Mercenary For Justice one of his more solid direct to video efforts.