Mercenary

Headache inducing with only three actual actors, John Ritter, Robert Culp, and Ed Lauter, who are all terribly wasted. The pace is so rushed that it could give you whiplash. The action scenes are filmed in extreme closeup to hide the lack of a budget. Explosions abound and of course the entire plot is ridiculous. This is one to avoid, I only wish I had done so, instead of wasting over an hour, before I couldn't take any more. You have been warned. Proceed at your own peril, unless mindless nonsense is something you enjoy. I actually feel bad having watched this, and hope you will take my advice ................... - MERK

I knew this was a bomb when at the beginning, there is a barrage of gunfire yet no guests heard it but one man shoots one bullet and they all scatter like roaches. Went downhill from there. One bad guy says "screw you" and I laughed. Watch it for comedic value.

John Ritter adds his style to this movie but he is not his quintessential style in this. I liked the action, and it is really well done, but unlike some reviewer comments, I did not find it boring or predictable. I am a movie buff and have seen hundreds of action, western, and adventure movies and this one was a bit different so how you view it depends on what you are expecting of it. Ritter is somewhat comic but is much more action-oriented which I think may throw the viewer but it added to my thrill. I recommend the movie for the heavy action, thrills, and the male bonding that occurs in the film.

Olivier Gruner stars as Hawk, a commando who is hired by John Ritter(!) to take on Phoenix (Martin Kove) the Russian terrorist who killed Ritter's wife and our band of mercenaries have their share of problems since there is sabotage on the inside and Ritter goes the one man army route to get vengeance for his disturbingly (much) younger wife. This is probably the only time you'll ever see John Ritter as a one man army teaming up with Olivier Gruner kickboxing various people and jumping behind explosions. Truly this novelty is enough to give one the giggles but the biggest shock is that Mercenary is surprisingly well made. It's no classic and none of it is worth watching unless you're a fan of straight to video schlock, however this is probably the best movie i've seen from Olivier Gruner and the action sequences deliver the sufficient crunch that you would expect. Plus it's an action flick with John Ritter getting the lion's share of the action and that alone is something you won't see ever again. So Mercenary isn't as bad as I thought it would be, on the other hand this is movie reserved only for those who are fans of the genre. Hence why it's a two star rating.

* * out of 4-(Fair)

This yarn was supposed to take place in Moab, Jordan (erroneously mentioned as Moab, Israel but hey, that is par for the course for this flick !) . I have been to Jordan but never seen scenery like that ! And Russians living in "ancient" monasteries , crawling all over the Jordanian countryside in buggies and firing un-countable bullets AND at least 3 surface to air missiles ? Pull the other one !! I don't know whether the handful of "producers" got their investment back or not, but WHY waste money on a useless plot and a hopeless video film in the first place ??