It seems nowadays actionmeister Steven Seagal is more into his growing folk music exploits than relaunching his action star status. There have been a few recent DTV efforts which had promise, but I don’t think Ol’ Sensei Steven is anywhere near his theatrical peak of “Under Siege” or even “Out For Justice” for that matter. That said, for a DTV release, his latest, ‘Mercenary For Justice” offers some things that Seagal fans have sorely missed: the good natured back to basics where you get a good share of back and neck breakings, the hand/wrist twists, an actual Akido flip! For once Seagal doesn’t totally rely on a stand in and shaky close ups. Another step in the right direction is the tanks, RV’s and cars that are photographed getting blown up very nicely. There is also a noticable fight with Seagal’s character John Seeger and a CIA thug in the men’s bathroom of an upscale dinner club-resteruant. Again, a shadow of the old school days when, Seagal’s characters would almost never break a sweat in disarming an attacker or breaking the arm of said attacker.
But, alas, let’s not get our hopes up too much. Seeger, a freelance merc for hire, is introduced by being involved with other mercs who, in order to “ensure” the escape he hostile war between the French and the Angolians (!) have kidnapped the French Ambassador and his family. The French military orders thier boys to not shoot at the renegade mercs, but shoot they do, and they knock off the French Ambassador and the next of kin with a grenade launcher. Seeger’s best bud gets killed in the crosshairs, and then quits…but not before going back to the US and ‘looking after’ his buddy’s widow and son. Those dirty old renegades from the CIA hold the late buddy’s family and will kill them unless Seeger does one more mission with the bad merc team. What ensues is a slightly confusing (and shamelessly unbelievable) plot of who is doing what and to who. Is the mission going to hack into a bank and mess up the payoffs to varied crooked Greek drug dealer and setup the bad renegade CIA honchos? Or is it an extraction of the dealer’s son from a prison?

This marks the third time where I have noticed an actor or low tier action star be opposite or appearing in a movie with Seagal, and the two hardly so much as exchange punches. In this case, it is Luke Goss, best known for ‘Blade II’ and that silly yarn ‘Silverhawk’. Still, after going against Wesley Snipes, then Michelle Yeoh…only to be underused in a Seagal flick is not good. Goss has presence, he should not be wasted away like this. But what irritated me more was that this was the second time I seen a Seagal flick where he actually kills innocent people- just doing thier jobs. In “On Deadly Ground” there were a bunch of oil workers who did not know that thier boss was a murderer. In order to get to some bad guys, Seagal has to knock off some of these people, In this movie, the innocent people knocked off are those who work in the bank or work for the French police. The French guys, it is esablished, are on the side of the ‘good guys’ although they don’t know it. Yes, I was pissed. I was extremely pissed. It’s one thing if Seagal makes pix where you know the baddies picked the wrong guy to mess with; it’s another story when the security guys at the bank are shot in the head and chest by the protagonists. Or the good cops/agents are blown up by a grenade tossed by Seeger.

Once Goss is out of the picture, though, comes more plot absurdity. The remaining baddies, knowing full well that Seeger has made moves of his own, don’t simply off or maim the hostages. They just move them to another location while planning to kill Seeger and his friends when they show up at the previous hostage location. There is not a lot of good action here in the last fifteen minutes, it is just routine and by the numbers. At least we got some cars blowing up, and one Seagal flip onscreen. We actually needed more of the latter and not the former. The loose ends coda is simply fifteen minutes of yawns. Don E. FauntLeRoy, who also directed Seagal in ‘Today You Die’, also has an early fascination with camera shutter techinques used in ‘Black Hawk Down’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’. It’s nice to homage or be inspired, it is another trying to jump on the bandwagon that has already left.

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Mercenary For Justice
Directed by : Don E. FauntLeRoy
Starring: Steven Seagal, Luke Goss and Jacqueline Lord.