Expect No Mercy

Although not the best of the Billy Blanks and Jalal Merhi films, this action packed sci-fi thriller sees the two martial artists collaborate once again to smash a virtual reality martial arts school headed by the feminine Wolf Larson and this fellow thugs who use this as a front for an assassin-for-hire type business. I love the shot at the beginning where the muscular Michael Blanks (Billy's real life brother), chases a bodyguard and does a flying kick to lay him flat. One of the thugs, Damien, played by Anthony De Longis really annoyed me, maybe it's not his fault but he quotes "What a lovely singing voice you must have" to a pinned down victim in an office, which we all know was quoted by Bill Murray in the 1984 smash hit sci-fi comedy "GHOSTBUSTERS". I really like Billy Blanks as he is as tough as action heroes come but sweet, not portrayed as a bas boy with an attitude like Steven Seagal. I also dig Jalal Merhi who is really cool. If you are a fan of Mr. Tae-Bo and the Fearless Tiger don't miss it. Plenty of good fight scenes including Billy killing his own brother (not really though), and a good relationship that is tough and comic between the two leading men.

Only on the VERY rarest occasions do multiple bad movie ingredients magically coalesce into the most rewardingly flavoursome celluloid cheese, and Zale Dalen's entertainingly bizarre B-fight flick 'Expect No Mercy' is arguably one of the most fragrantly overcooked slices of virtual martial arts mayhem you could ever hope to witness! As this conspicuously Canadian, copiously crap-tastic computerised Kung Foolishness remains a vainglorious virtual calamity!

Muscular martial arts maestro, and telegenic Tae Bo tycoon Billy Blanks energetically unleashes one of his more dynamic performances as the powerhouse, frequently shirtless, eminently clueless government agent tasked to infiltrate the tyrannical terrain of wantonly warped warrior guru Warbeck (Wolf Larson), but Warbeck's queasy charm, rock star good looks and princely chin belie his exquisitely evil supervillain mind! On top of the plentiful array of hyperbolic fight scenes, enjoyably rudimentary CGI, hilariously formulaic text, and silky-sexy synth score by Varouje it's Warbeck's manically unfiltered mannerisms that strongly suggest 'Expect No Mercy' will mercilessly become your brand-new bad movie obsession! To reiterate, Wolf Larson's moorishly odoriferous performance as the pixel chewing wrong 'un Warbeck is worth its weight in 24 month-aged Parmigiano-Reggiano!

Starring: Billy Blanks, Michael Blanks, Blankety Blanks, Jalal Merhi, Brett Hasley, Lauri Holden (who would go on to star in The Walking Dead!)

Truly Mong Fu from start to finish, Expect No Mercy has Billy Blanks taking on two enemies: an assassin school and computer technology!

Some guy called Warbeck (yeah! The Beyond!) runs a martial arts academy where the students hook up to a machine and go head to head with simulations. It's all very cult-like and Warbeck kind of has some sort of God complex. Also, it's all really just a front for his assassin school, which makes millions wasting people for cash. Warbeck uses his computer technology to plan his executions then watches (and records) the killings via cameras.

When the previous undercover cop turns up dead, the cops recruit Billy Blanks to go undercover and contact Eric, another cop pretending to be an instructor. Billy takes on the virtual enemies, some other students, He hates technology and regularly tells everyone so (especially those guards who are sent to capture him after Eric and Billy are caught uncovering the assassin school thing).

Most of this film is just kung fu fighting. Some in this world, some in the virtual world. The virtual stuff is pretty funny, both retro- wise and mainly for the fact that the virtual enemies are hilarious (wait until you see Billy getting a proper kicking from a ninja, a samuri, a kick boxer, a clown etc all at the same time!) There's a pretty good gun fight right around the one hour mark, but mostly it's Billy and Jalal kicking people's heads in. Billy even faces off against his real life brother in a fight that seems to last about three days.

Expect No Mercy is chock-full of continuity errors (breathing corpses, visible dummies etc), unintentional laughs (check out the positions Billy and Eric are lying in after falling off a building) and dodgy acting (the lead baddie, plus sometimes Billy comes across like he's been kicked in the head too many times).

Not bad though - worth a look if you can tolerate these things.

"Expect No Mercy" is a time capsule product of the beautiful glory days of the Video market, the direct-to-video heyday's of the 80's & 90's, those times are beautiful Nostalgic trips to the better times in my opinion, the shelves of Blockbuster video or anywhere else that sold or rented videos would have so many Awesome looking B-movies from Action to Horror, the variety & cool cover art was fantastic & I'm so glad i experienced it all & i lived in those video stores practically lol that's how much i enjoyed pickings out videos, i was always in those places & i discovered so many great "Gems" & i treasure those times & kids today will Never have those fun times, god i miss the 90's & from those beautiful times of videos & B-movie craziness this low-budget martial arts flick was born, a sort-of Virtual Reality sci-fi action & martial arts Thriller starring vhs era hero BILLY BLANKS, this dude was on so many DTV covers & to honest he's a fun product of the those times, a cheap Wesley Snipes in a way but was Cool enough to have his own fan base.

"Expect No Mercy" is fun, good pure 90's cheesy action with comedy & really bad 90's special effects but that's also why i like it so much & the really cool music at the beginning by Varouje, epic music score.

Another 90's B-list star WOLF LARSON is here too as a villain of of a martial art academy that uses VR to train it's warriors & i like Wolf, this dude was great in the B-movie Gem "Shakedown" from 2002 & here he's a long haired porno star looking villain lol but he's cool. Billy Blanks goes undercover at the place for the F. B. I & it's a typical low-budget martial arts flick with fancy fighting & that really cool & really colourful 90's lighting that gives it a comic-book look.

There's some buddy aspects to this & alot of fun & plenty of violence.

If you like this type of thing, like i do, then you will enjoy it for exactly what it is.....90's B-movie Fun.

I know some of the people who worked on this film, and I still can't stand it. Most of the fight scenes were wooden and boring - your basic B-movie fare, the dialogue bites and was there a plot here? I'm sure someone thought so, but I didn't.

I watched it once to be polite to my friends, but I felt like my foot was caught in a bear trap and I would have to gnaw my own leg off to escape. Never again.