Mercenary for Justice

Plot synopsis:
CIA dirty deeds man John Dresham (Luke Goss) and Black Ops organiser Anthony Chapel (Roger Guenveur Smith) hire John Seeger (Steven Seagal) and his crew for a mission in the French-controlled Galmoral Island in Southern Africa. They tell them they are helping the locals when in reality they just want to get rich on oil and diamonds.
John gets steamed when the mission goes wrong. Some of his soldiers take the French Ambassador (Rudiger Eberle) and his family hostage for leverage and later blow them all up. The French close in on them, his best friend Radio Jones (Zaa Nkweta) is killed, and Maxine Barnol, his spy posing as a journalist, suggests CIA involvement.
John heads back to the U.S.A. and goes to the home of Radio's wife Shondra (Faye Peters), tells her the news, and then promises her that he'll take care of her and her young son Eddie (Tumi Mogoje). While there he kills two of Dresham's men sent to kill him and discovers Dresham's implication.
Chapel again hires the team of mercenaries, kidnapping Shondra and Eddie to force John into cooperating. The mission involves rescuing Kamal Dasan, the son of prominent gun runner Ahmet Dasan (Peter Butler), who has been arrested and thrown into the Randveld Prison outside of Cape Town, South Africa, and is due to be transferred to the States.
Dresham discovers the job but not its object and when he bumps into Maxine he forces her to work for him instead of Chapel. Maxine leads him to believe that the target is the safe of the bank of South Africa and Dresham uses his CIA influence to be shown round the security installation. Maxine listens attentively and takes photos.
John leads Dresham in circles but when the mercenaries break into the prison Kamal isn't there any more and the bad elements of the team get killed. Next stop the bank. In the safe John persuades the Greeks to arrest Kamal's father, then escapes making sure Dresham will be arrested too.
Finally, with a few faithful members of his team, John rescues Shondra and Eddie and kills Chapel and his guards.

Tags: revenge, violence

Review:
If you've kept up with Seagal's direct-to-video career (as I diligently have) "Mercenary for Justice" is certainly a step in the right direction.
Second, although there's more gun-play than Aikido, Seagal performs in all his own action sequences (no stunt/body doubles) and the fight choreography is relatively classic Seagal (arm and wrist twisting / body tossing).
The opening also suffers from the classic low budget, "shooting a stunt from multiple angles – then intermittently cutting those different shots of the same stunt into the movie trying to sell it as a new event each time" trick.
However Seagal has one of the most forgiving and undemandingly loyal fan bases out there, so he's getting away with it.Mercenary For Justice is on one hand the usually bog standard he's been doing lately, but on a slightly more positive not he does most of his ADR looping and also all his own fights.
Now that might seem like something that should be a given for an action man but these days Seagal films are rated on the following: Participation in fights, stunts, in the shooting itself (not using stand ins!) and participation in performing his own dialogue.
As such this film is a step up from Black Dawn and Today You Die, his previous two, poor, poor movies.The trouble is that the film has an awful script, poor direction and of course an incredibly wooden performance by its lead.
How true this is I don't know but certainly in this film and TYD, Seagal is probably only present for 2/3 of the movie.
Thankfully MFJ marks the last time Seagal will work with these producers and this director, following a much publicised legal battle of suing and counter suing.MFJ makes no sense whatsoever, perhaps largely due to the slipshod and difficult production thanks to the problems between the producers and the star.
This is so poorly constructed and shabbily put together that it makes one wonder just how Seagal fans (myself included can keep coming back in the vein hope he'll do a good movie again.
Similarly the film is not helped by a poor cast around Seagal, who lest we not forget is not in the movie that much.
In perhaps the most awful performance ever committed to a B action film, Roger Guenveur Smith, grates, and annoys in the most clichéd British bad guy role, in which every word is ludicrously overly enunciated.
There's plenty of explosions but the film is badly edited and the fights sequences are particularly dull, despite Seagal's participation in them.
They unfortunately lack imagination and aside from some bone breaking and flushing peoples heads down toilets, it's all pretty brief and uninspired.The sad thing is that many Seagal fans will "settle" for this junk.
I hope Seagal takes note in his next few films, but thankfully I see there will be little chance they are as bad as this.
A long time ago, (Okay, 1989) Steven Seagal was the master of the martial arts, A man who speaks little, but makes up for it in kicking ass...
For Seagal DTV standards, (does that even make sense?) it isn't as bad as "Submerged" , but it's not as good as "Belly Of The Beast".The plot: John Seeger (you know who...) is an ex-mercenary, CIA, FBI dude, who has to break into a prison, while orchestrating a bank robbery.
A mercenary works for money and he has no soul, he doesn't do it for justice.The only actors good in this is Roger Guenveur Smith as the villain Mr. Chapel and Luke Goss as Dresham.
The story makes no sense whatsoever from beginning to end, and Seagal's ego-feeding is in full-force here (he is introduced as "the most decorated soldier in Gulf War I" - apparently he wouldn't even settle for "second most decorated" - and, of course, nobody can land a single tiny hit on him in a fight, despite the fact that these days he has to send his stunt double to climb over a 10-foot wall).
The viewer has no idea what is going on or why, and in a turn of events that shows just how utterly moronic this script is, Seagal and his female partner Jacqueline Lord kill several perfectly innocent Cape Town cops and security people who were just trying to protect the bank that these two were (inexplicably) robbing, yet the film apparently expects us to continue regarding them as the good guys (!!!), because they are trying to save a black kid and his mother.
It starts on a war-torn battlefield with Seagal and a group of mercenaries fighting a legion of French soldiers after having kidnapped and killed the French ambassador.
FauntLeRoy, who did the so-so "Today You Die" with Seagal, proves his worth with this sequence as the action is fluid and crisp and looks like it cost way more than the reported $15 million it actually did.
Another thankful gesture to his loyal fans in this film is Seagal actually does his own fighting, and while the fight scenes are less impressive, at least it's him doing it.
(That was a huge problem if you have ever watched "Flight of Fury (2007)").Overall, the acting is decent, the story almost un-followable, and the action is good.
what a great movie,, the best Seagal DVD in years,, even better than the new Pistol Whipped, this one has everything,, an opening Army battle scene,, everything blowing up,, good fight scenes for Seagal that we haven't really seen in years, a decent plot line,, also lacking for many of those DVD's of his in recent years, and this one even has a sexy as heck girl for Seagal to be with,, i liked the many different characters in this one,, Chappel for one was pretty good,, i don't touch guns...
Its a regular Steven Seagal film, with good action & a strictly passable story.'Mercenary for Justice' Synopsis: A mercenary gets involved in a mission that threatens the lives of his kin.
Surprisingly here Seagal looks like his doing most of his own stunts, but then again the martial art combat is lacking (plenty of slapping and people being thrown about) and more time is taken up with relentless gunfire and explosions.
I liked most of Seagal's recent movies such as "The Foreigner" or "Out For A Kill" (and many who watched those don't agree with me).
The two only good points were some camera work (many shots were hand-held, looks more realistic than nice crane moves) and beautiful Jacqueline Lord who bears a strong resemblance with Catherine Zeta-Jones and plays her role convincingly no matter if she is at a dinner party or a battle..
In Mercenary For Justice Steven Seagal is turning away from his recent Direct-To-DVD releases and opening with a great 'war' scene one that comes close to "Saving Private Ryan".
Steven also his hearing his fan base and decided to do his own fights scenes, also at the end he gets back to his 'movie' roots when he goes after the man who set him up in the beginning.
Steven Seagal might be getting old and he also might not have the same shape he had 20 years ago but he certainly still can make a movie great just by being in it.Actually, this movie itself is pretty good.
Steven Seagal might be getting old and he also might not have the same shape he had 20 years ago but he certainly still can make a movie great just by being in it.Actually, this movie itself is pretty good.
Reminds you of the good old days when Van Damme and Seagal were backed by big budgets.Mercenary for Justice is a colorful film filled with explosive action scenes, great dialogues and one-liners, fight scenes in which Seagal actually takes part.
Reminds you of the good old days when Van Damme and Seagal were backed by big budgets.Mercenary for Justice is a colorful film filled with explosive action scenes, great dialogues and one-liners, fight scenes in which Seagal actually takes part.
Just like romantic comedies and politic thrillers all follow some basic rules, action movies are also lead by a set of pre-requisites that you just expect to be there.
Just like romantic comedies and politic thrillers all follow some basic rules, action movies are also lead by a set of pre-requisites that you just expect to be there.
Really, I couldn't keep track of Good People and the Bad People, or when they switches sides or why, or which side Black Tech Guy is on from minute to minute.On the plus sides, Seagal does his own "fight" scenes, but they're just sad now.
uh, sorry, Luke Goss owns the few scenes that he's in, but there's just not enough of them to save this movie, and they're irrelevant anyway since Seagal is playing his usual immortal Myrmidon Let's give Goss the last word though: "This is unbelievable," he opines, and there's not much to disabuse that notion here..
The heart felt story begins with Seagal being described the as a wild card and the best at his job i.e blowing stuff up in slow-mo.A mercenary gets involved in a mission that threatens the lives of his kin.
In order to succeed, he must break into one of the most wellguarded prisons in Eastern Europe and free the son of the most notorious drug lord in the world todayIn conclusion this is a great and refreshing change from the average action film with real heart felt drama its only rival release may be firewall, however Harrison Ford struggles to compete with Seagal in every aspect."It's time to fight again"....
The action sequences are staged rather well and the production stands higher than expected for this typical Seagal film direct-to-video entry.
god, all I could ask was: who the hell wrote this?We have a good idea for a film: Seagal is a mercenary and we'll throw in some twists, some bad people, some friction with the other merc's he works with, a hot blonde - oh no, she's a crappy fighter, let's kill her off!
The fighting took much much less screen time then gunfights, but alas, Seagal stayed true to his Aikido background.I thought the special effects were good, and the acting wasn't all that bad, which was a pleasant surprise.All things considered, it is worth the watch.
With a face of a stupid lion, a twice as much his old weight, a monster of a hair, and not much Aikido to perform STILL Steven Seagal is making movies as long as there are millions of idiot people who keep watching him.
Really movies come and go, good or bad, but he's in much worse case as he aged.
Whether his recent movies have attractive points or not, be sure, dear Seagal is having zero acting talent, zero funniness, and zero charisma, transforming from the master of Aikido, into the waster of Aikido!
(Mercenary for Justice) isn't a bad movie.
This movie isn't funny or tries to be; there is just one one-liner delivered horribly by Seagal near the end (whether the directors of his movies don't dare to tell him "please act", or they just despaired !).
It seems Steven Seagal's moves are becoming slower and slower after each film he makes.
You will quickly notice his huge gut within 10 minutes into the movie (God forbid should you watch this crap longer than 10 minutes).The movie starts off with scenes of men gunning each other like they're auditioning for Saving Seagal's Private.
I didn't quite understand why they were fighting; actually, I didn't understand what the movie is supposed to be about other than John Seeger, Seagal's character, wanting to get revenge after someone used him for whatever purpose the writers threw into the script.
If you watch this, DON'T RENT, and find a plot please let me know what it is because while watching the 84 minutes of this trash, in between the horrible acting and watching Seagal being out of breath, I couldn't find one.Now lets talk about the scenes a little.
Seagal (John Seeger, who's the genius who came up with that one) in one scene goes to "punch" someone in the bathroom and you can see obviously that he doesn't, I mean the guy he's trying to hit isn't even in the picture, and there's a punching sound.
This one seems like a sequel to Submerged, in that Seagal is working as part of a team again (thus meaning that other actors get the bulk of the meaty action sequences) and this movie (sadly) is all over the place (plot-wise) as Submerged.
And this movie (the second by Faunteroy, director of the equally fragmented Today You Die) has plenty of action (to make up for the lack of logic, perhaps?) and (what seems like) no fight-doubling for the stout sensei.
Seagal certainly performs a few of his (feared lost) classic Aikido moves (the fight in the bathroom, being a brutal notable) but the surrounding stuff (i.e, plot) is up there with the manic confusion of The Foreigner, Out for a kill, Out of reach and Submerged.A fair portion of this, could be down to the fact, that Seagal crammed filming this one with (roughly) about three other direct-to-video classics......so i guess you've got to credit quantity over quality, nowadays?
Technically, it's sound, the performances are OK, the action scenes are fine....i just wish these Direct-to-video releases would tone down the 'filler' plot, thus making the movie easier to understand?
So I went rented this movie along with Black Dawn because the thought of a good Seagal film got me overly excited.
I actually watched Black Dawn the next day and while Seagal was doubled for all his fight scenes the movie was much funner to watch than MFJ..
The fight scenes are credible, the action staged well, and Seagal's old persona comes out in this film.
Mercenary for Justice starts as corrupt CIA agent John Dresham (Luke Goss) & all round bad guy Anthony Chapel (Roger Guenveur Smith) arrange the kidnapping of the French Ambassador in a remote African island using hard as nails Gulf war veteran John Seeger (co-executive producer & uncredited co-writer Steven Seagal) & some of his mates as cover, plausible deniability & all that apparently.
FauntLeRoy who is also credited as cinematographer Mercenary for Justice was the second of three awful straight-to-video/DVD action flicks he made with Seagal (the other's being Today You Die (2005) & Urban Justice (2007) which are just as bad) & at this stage I seriously doubt whether Seagal will ever make a decent action film again, entertaining action fare such as Hard to Kill (1990), Marked for Death (1990), Out for Justice (1991) & the two Under Siege (1992, 1995) films seem a distant memory from a very long time ago.
One of the main problems with Mercenary for Justice in my opinion is that it's insanely complicated & tries to be too clever, there are all sorts of vague double crosses & ulterior motives & supposed twists & turns that are just so contrived & convoluted that they make little sense & are so badly written & presented end up making the whole film feel like a complete unfocused mess.
No-ones motives are ever fully revealed, I still don't really know what that CIA guy played by Luke Goss is all about, why were Seagal & his men fighting at the start, who was Chapel & why did he hire people he couldn't control & the whole thing is just a mess that jumps around from scene to scene trying to be clever but it's so poorly put together it's annoyingly confusing.
Even though it only lasts for about an hour & a half it feels much, much longer which is never a good sign, the dialogue is terrible, the character's are not fleshed out & their motives are never made clear & there isn't even much action in it which is the final nail in it's coffin really as far as I am concerned.These days Seagal is fat, you can see it & he's out of shape & not that menacing & he looks sluggish, slow & unconvincing in the action scenes.
Steven Seagal's direct-to-video movies have been on something of a downward spiral as of late, so it's nice to see a film that finally takes a step in the right direction.
At least fans can be thankful that he doesn't have somebody else dubbing his voice this time around (as in the likes of TICKER) and we do get to see him take part in some fun fight scenes, displaying his trademark aikido moves.
Elsewhere a body double steps in as Seagal's character runs across some rocks, but we can forgive that.The plot is typically convoluted, but then you wouldn't expect anything else from this kind of movie.
All in all, MERCENARY FOR JUSTICE is a film more entertaining than it has any right to be, and a real treat for Seagal fans who thought the actor had lost his way..
Come one man you can do better than this ,i used to like your movies until now that is .
a pretty good steven seagal movie,.
Die-Hard fans will be pleased to know Seagal does a lot of his own hand-to hand fights here.
"Mercenary for justice"- surely a candidate for oxymoron of the year -is the first Stephen Seagal movie I have seen since the excellent "The Foreigner" and I am disappointed to report that the dear boy has let his love for the folding green overcome his artistic sensibilities once more.What are you like,Steve?
Blah blah kills someone he likes out for revenge something or another...the usual seagal movie.
No justice and victory of good over evil, something i've always appreciated and looked forward to in these kinds of movies no matter how bad the rest of it was.