Mercenary for Justice (2006)

One of my all time favorites.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Excellent but underrated film

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

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. MERCENARY FOR JUSTICE is no masterpiece by anybody's reckoning, but it's nevertheless a slick, action-packed thriller that doesn't take itself too seriously, while at the same time offering up a number of humorous supporting characters, a little welcome comedy and plenty of bangs for your bucks. Seagal himself presides over things, looking surprisingly distinguished in a suit, but bloated and aged elsewhere. 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. There are double and triple crosses, lots of nefarious bad guys, and some MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE style intrigues in bank vaults. One thing the film has in its favour is some great, stylish camera-work, done well on the low budget – if you can call a multi-million dollar budget a low budget – and strong, inspired direction. The script is mundane but there are some great supporting characters who steal Seagal's limelight; newcomer Jacqueline Lord is devilishly attractive as the heroine of the piece, while BLADE II's Luke Goss plays a corrupt government agent with typical aplomb. Roger Guenveur Smith's performance is less assured as another villain – I can't decide whether he's good or bad – and South African Adrian Galley steals all his scenes as a beefy bodyguard with a nice line in humour.The action is fun and varied, ranging from war action at the beginning (great) to a house-under-siege at the end, reminiscent of THE KILLER. Between then there are some cool fights, including a battle between Seagal and a goon in a bathroom that is really painful to watch. Necks and arms are broken with relish and blood spatters everywhere once the shooting starts. The title is somewhat amusing, seeing as Seagal goes about gunning down policemen and SWAT team members without blinking an eyelid; yet we're still supposed to identify 100% with this 'hero'. 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.

Blah blah kills someone he likes out for revenge something or another...the usual seagal movie. Anyway here's the thing about the movie i find unforgivable. In one of the final scenes John seeger(was this so the Japanese would pronounce it seegel?) goes to such ridiculous lengths to break into some high security bank to get to apparently an atm in the middle of the business to print out a freakin bank statement. However to get this far he had to kill like every police officer in town and their brother. Cops are good guys right? Especially when they're just trying to do their duty. And yet when he meets up with one of the head honchos for the umpteenth time in the bank he hands him the statement and says you're going to jail. Knocks him unconscious and f@%+in leaves! Oh and to get to the bad guy and leave he had to kill more guys. I couldn't finish the movie. Seegal is not a bad ass in this movie he's a bad guy. There's no happy ending here. 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. Reminds me of devil's rejects.

"Mercenary For Justice": a confused mixture of a bit of warfare in the "Black Hawk Down" vein, a bank robbery, a prison break and a mission to save an abducted mother and her little son. In between all the bullets flying around, you hardly get to know the characters, and thus you don't really care about any of them. 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). However, "Mercenary of Justice" was the weakest among those I've watched. Seagal defeats bad guys without wasting any blood, sweat or tears. It's all coming too easy to be exciting. 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.

I'm a Seagal fan and the rave reviews from other Seagal fans for MFJ brought me back to his films. After I was bored to death with OUT OF REACH and INTO THE SUN I gave up and said I would return till Seagal did a decent film again. I missed Submerged, Today you die and black Dawn, but then good reviews started to flood in for this movie. Supposedly he does all his own fights and the action is well done. So I went rented this movie along with Black Dawn because the thought of a good Seagal film got me overly excited. All I ask from a Seagal films is entertainment, but I was bored my MFJ. Did Seagal do his own "fight" scene?...yes. Was it a good fight scene?..No. The key word there is "Fight" and not "Fights". He has only one real fight scene in the movie. The plot was impossible to follow and the movie was just bad. 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.