Bullet Points: Mercenary for Justice
“Steven Seagal is a mercenary!”
“Steven Seagal stands for justice!”
“Steven Seagal is a Mercenary for Justice!”
I imagine that is what the voice over would say for the Mercenary for Justice TV spot, if Mercenary for Justice was a theatrical release… but 2006’s Mercenary for Justice came after Seagal movies were getting a wide theatrical release, but before he grew his goatee…
- Land of Confusion: I was really confused by the opening sequence of this movie. Maybe I was not paying enough attention or maybe watching hours and hours of action movies every week is slowly but surely rotting my brain… no matter, the movie begins with a high ranking CIA official John Dresham (Luke Goss, Death Race 3: Inferno) and Black Ops “Producer” Anthony Chapel (Roger Guenveur Smith) on the phone. Dresham needs a team of mercenaries to go to an fictitious island off the coast of South Africa to do something or another that involves the French Ambassador on the island. Chapel has just the people for it… the phone conversation serves to introduce the cast of characters we are about to spend the next 90 minutes or so with. The most notable being super hacker Samuel Kay (Michael Kenneth Williams, Hap and Leonard), the man himself John Seeger (Steven Seagal, Marked for Death) and tough chick Maxine Barnol (Jacqueline Lord). Let me go on record and say that Jacqueline Lord is the type of woman that I’d be willing to sit through a subpar Steven Seagal movie for.
- Upside Down: Even though I was unclear on what the hell the objective of the mission Seeger and his team of mercs were on, it was still obvious things did not go right. Things went sideways, things got flipped turned upside down, things went down the shitter… but they certainly did not go the way they were planned to go. Anytime you lose one of your best friends in battle it is not a good day and that is exactly what happened when Seeger’s best bud/communications expert Radio Jones is shot in the back and dies in the arms of Seeger. Did I mention the French Ambassador, his family and the hired help who worked for him all blow up in a truck too?! Yes… it was a Grade A cluster.
- Promises Promises: Radio Jones’ dying wish to John Seeger, was that Seeger take care of Radio’s wife Shondra and his young son Eddie. Seeger takes this responsibility seriously. After returning from the shit show that went down on the made up island off the coast of South Africa, Seeger pays the widow Jones and Eddie a visit, letting them know he plans on taking care of them from now on and he will make sure that Radio gets a proper military burial. Seeger notices a suspicious vehicle parked outside Shondra’s house… inside two guys tasked by Dresham to kill Seeger because… again I’m not really sure why Dresham wanted Seeger dead, other than the fact that Dresham is an evil CIA guy and if action movies are to be believed, there are a lot of evil guys that work for the Central Intelligence Agency. Dresham’s hired guns fail miserably and end up dead at the hands of Seeger. But next thing Seeger knows, he is being scooped up by some of his fellow mercs and taken to Anthony Chapel, who has another job for Seeger and company. After the last failed mission, Seeger is in no mood to take another job… but he is forced to when Chapel has some guys kidnap Shondra and Eddie. If Seeger doesn’t do this job, Chapel will have Shondra and Eddie killed… if Seeger let that happen, it would be the exact opposite of what his old buddy Radio asked of him, so Seeger is off to South Africa to break the son of a wealthy Greek “businessman” out of a high security prison.
- Blurred Lines: Things get really convoluted again, with Maxine apparently working for Dresham or at least pretending to as Dresham is still hell bent on killing Seeger. This leads to a romantic dinner filled with tension between Seeger and Maxine while the movie tries to figure out what side she is on and while I tried to figure out why these two were going on a date in the middle of a movie where Seeger was on a time sensitive mission. Fortunately for the audience, Seeger manages to come up with an elaborate plan that sees all the characters we care about team up and give all the characters we don’t care about what they’ve got coming… especially that asshole Chapel, who was ready to turn on anyone and everyone at a moment’s notice.
I’d like to say all is well that ends well, but that would be an exaggeration. There were hints and glimpses of Seagal’s former glory in Mercenary for Justice and it did include some quality action scenes (and the delightful Jacqueline Lord). Mercenary for Justice is certainly not the worst Steven Seagal movie I’ve ever seen, but the swiss cheese script still has my head spinning. Less characters and characters with some clear motivation would have made for a better story and a better movie. Even Steven Seagal fans should proceed with caution on this one.
You may now proceed to the Bonus Bullet Points…
- Familiar Face: Lesley-Anne Down has an uncredited role as a newscaster. Action fans may remember Down as Charles Bronson’s love interest in Death Wish V: The Face of Death.
- Disturbing Quote: “I’m going to stick my .45 up your ass.”
- The Name Game: Mercenary for Justice is also known as Mercenary in places like Italy, Germany and France. This should not be confused with the 1996 movie, Mercenary, starring Olivier Gruner and John Ritter.
- Trading Places: Interestingly enough the London born Luke Goss, plays the yank CIA man, while the California born Roger Guenveur Smith played the limey bastard!
