Featured DVD Review: Mercenaries

March 6, 2012

Mercenaries - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Video on Demand

Mercenaries arrived on my desk unannounced. It features a few actors I recognized by name, like Billy Zane, but for the most part I had no idea what to expect. Going in without expectations is probably the best way to review a movie, but will this film benefit from that?

The Movie

A military coup in Serbia results in the death of the president and his family. It was organized by Olodan Crackovic (Antony Byrne), a notorious war criminal, who had been in hiding for 15 years. The U.N. are looking to stop Crackovic from rising to power, but the U.S. is worried about sending in regular military troops, so they decide to, as Colonel Torida calls it, "sub-contract initial engagement to", in a word, mercenaries. Leading these mercenaries is Andy Marlow (Robert Fucilla) and her and a trio of other soldiers (Lucas (Robert Boulter); Callum (Rob James-Collier; and Zac) are sent to to rescue the ambassador (Danny Sapani) and his aide (Kirsty Mitchell) and arrest Crackovic and bring them all back alive.

In the meantime, the Ambassador learns why Crackovic thinks he'll be able to hold off the U.N. forces. Crackovic has an ace up his sleeve, or to be more accurate, a nuclear warhead in his arsenal.

That's about it for the plot. It's a rather generic action film with a very low budget. The special effects were very weak and this killed the action scenes in the movie, and this film is mostly action scenes with very little in terms of plot or character development. The acting ranged from disinterested to cringe-inducing. Granted, they are never given anything really interesting to say, so I can't put too much blame on the actors. The direct to DVD action film is a crowded genre and quite frankly, there are far too many other films to check out to waste time on this one.

The Extras

The only extra on the DVD is a behind-the-scenes featurette. However, it is nearly 40 minutes long, which is meaty for this type of release. I was expecting a five-minute featurette with a handful of interviews.

The Verdict

I've seen far too many direct to DVD action films as part of my job here. At best, Mercenaries is merely average compared to others in the genre. Since most of these films are not worth a rental, it's pretty safe to skip the DVD or Video on Demand.


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Filed under: Video Review, Mercenaries