There are tons of movies that are shipped out direct to DVD.
Some of them are decent films and on occasion you get one where you wonder what
folks in Hollywood were thinking when they release some piece of crap and yet
release a great movie direct to DVD. And there are movies like MERCENARIES
which make you forget about why direct to DVD but how did this movie ever get
made to begin with?
The story is fairly simple. The US has an ambassador in the
Balkans who's been captured by a ruthless general starting a coup of the
country. They need to send in a team to rescue him but if it's an American team
the political fall out will be disastrous. Instead, they decide to send in a
team of mercenaries.
The team consists of several ex-military types led by Andy
Marlow. And this is where things begin to go all wrong. First off the team
looks like their uniforms were just purchased from the factory. Even outfits
bought at army surplus stores look more worn than these do. Nicely creased, not
a speck of dirt and it remains that way through most of the picture. The second
thing is that there is no discipline among this team. While Andy is the man in
charge, when a group of civilians are about to be killed the entire team ignores
his plea to stick to the mission to help them. Mercs as depicted in most films
follow orders, stick to plans and get the job done. Here they do what they
want, make as much noise as possible while attempting to avoid detection and
don't do one thing that would keep the enemy from knowing exactly where they
are.
As members of the team are knocked off one at a time, they
do rescue the ambassador and his lovely assistant who seems as familiar with
weapons as the mercs are. Good thing since their numbers dwindle with each
passing minute.
I'd love to say this film had some redeeming quality to it
but there isn't a thing that I liked about it. The acting was amateurish at
best, the script was terrible and the story lame. Then to cap it off the sets
were amazingly bad. The movie looks like it was filmed in some Appalachian
forest reserve rather than the Balkans.
Forget whether this movie is worth adding to your collection
it's not even worth a rental no matter how low the price. As a matter of fact
it's not worth wasting your time to watch if it was free. Pass this one by.
Click here to order.
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