Mercy (1995)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The beginning of this was interesting, though we've see other "Ransom gone wrong" films before (Ransom, High and Low). But this quickly went south and never came back.Sam Rockwell was good but both his dialogue and screen time seemed purposefully short. The "Ruby" character was played well enough for the viewer to buy her as genuinely crazed, though there is little pity felt for her once the full story is learned. The daughter stands out as one of the best performances in the VERY few lines she has, Also the maid was well played, and her dialogue important and tense without sounding phony or trite.The biggest problems i felt were 2. Firstly that the main character was NOT a good person and this wasn't reinforced in a way that made you either despise him or empathize with him in spite of his shortcomings. The director clearly couldn't ably spend so much time focusing on the character's plight in trying to reclaim his duaghter from the kidnappers and still portray him as overall despicable.The viewer is left feeling that even though he did something truly bad that no one really cares.Secondly is that the last 20 minutes of the film are ABSOLUTELY, COMICALLY BAD. BAD BAD BAD!The main character sinks into a despair (which wasn't explored well enough) and ends up in the ghetto buying drugs he's never tried and then ends up in the care of a truly crazy man. Here's the toss-up. I can't decide, myself, whether it was really bad writing or if they actually got a crazy subway guy to play the part of, well, himself.I say this because most of the actual street crazies i've run into in my life (and i seem to attract them like a magnet) are loud, self interested and their craziness is usually completely boring. They seem to more often be stringing together words that make no sense together or railing diatribes about ideas which they themselves haven't fully thought out. Like they're randomly talking just to be noticed. Such is the character we see at the end of this film. It's SO BAD we can't decide whether to laugh out loud or just push eject.I rented this one as a fan of Sam Rockwell's and wanted to see some earlier stuff. Whoever made this movie should NEVER BE ALLOWED TO USE A CAMERA AGAIN! Ever. No one wants to see what he's got to show, or hear what he thinks he's got to say.It was like watching spiders with half their legs pulled off trying to escape a glass bowl.That's all i have.

Glad his father wasn't alive to see it. A trashy, paperback novel. I watched this film because it was the only thing available during an attack of insomnia. John used to be a super actor.I prefer to be succinct, but the damn guidelines of this site insist that I have at least 10 lines of text.The writer before me described the film as being 'intense'. I found the film to be intensely boring and trivial.No merit whatsoever, the only good actor was the child.The only films ABC airs in the early morning are the ones no one wants to rent from Netflix or BlockBuster. I am being forced to comment about the film and it is difficult to continue on a negative note.I do not recommend this film.

No, wait - it IS a train wreck. Did ANYBODY view this thing before releasing it? Some of the acting in this is worse than I've seen in High School productions, believe me!The only reason to keep watching is to see if it ever gets better, or how much worse the direction / dialog / acting (using that term loosely here) can get. Was hoping for some sort of redemption, but don't waste your time like I did. Truly - this was a waste of film or whatever they shot it on. Sam Rockwell should hire someone to burn the masters. It's 90 minutes I'll never get back.

This is a movie about a father who is searching for his kidnapped daughter in New York City. First off, I would like to say that the pacing of this movie is incredible. Nothing is too drawn out, nor does it speed up towards the end and wrap everything up in 15 minutes. There is definitely a lot of tension in this movie, I definitely felt it during a few scenes.This is one of those movies where the story moves between "good guy, bad guy" in terms of John Rubenstein's character. He is introduced as a somewhat snobby lawyer who makes sure he gets what he wants. That quickly changes once he finds out his daughter is missing. From then on, he is depicted as a determined father, who will stop at nothing to get his daughter back. Some scenes even show that his determination somehow ties into his dark past, thinking that he is a powerful person who can have his way if he feels like it, ignoring the risk and danger that may be involved. Yes, there is definitely some great character work in this movie.I would also like to mention that it is almost ironic that Rick Gomez appears in this movie. He is, of course, the angry man who wants to use the payphone (If you've seen the movie, you will know who I am talking about.) I mention Rick because he and Sam Rockwell look unbelievably alike, so just so you don't get confused, if you think you see one of the kidnappers waiting to use the pay phone, that's not actually Sam Rockwell, it's Rick Gomez. Just thought I'd throw that out there.Ruby's character is also brilliantly developed. Ruby was once a sweet, yet somewhat obsessive teenager, now grown into a twisted kidnapper, seeking revenge for reasons unknown until much later on in the movie. Her shining scene, in my opinion, is when she begins to loose her grip on her own sanity as she is slowly engulfed in her own anger and hatred for the Father, and we as the audience are left with more questions than answers. What in the world could make this young woman so angry, so vengeful, that she would risk everything to commit a crime such as this? The very ending (the elevator scene, I won't say any more) is what could make or break the movie. It is a decision the Father makes, and the viewer is left to agree or disagree with his choice. Would it be his turn to seek revenge, or will he just file it away as another dark spot in his past? If you want to find out, you should see the movie, and I recommend it as a great rental for a rainy Saturday evening. Definitely a popcorn movie as well!