Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Mercenaries Blu-ray Movie Review

Another Expendable movie from The Asylum.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 17, 2014

Don't worry, Sly. The Expendables hasn't met its match. The Asylum's take on the popular Action franchise turns the gender tables in Mercenaries, a film about a handful of female prisoners, all of whom are highly skilled in some combat role or another, who set out to save the President's daughter from ruthless terrorists. OK, so the plot is as ridiculous as it is simple, and it's just as much a take on the old Snake Plissken formula as it is Lionsgate's profitable, testosterone-overloaded franchise. Comparisons to other films aside...wait...what else can one do with Asylum titles but compare them to other films? As for those comparisons, there is no comparison. This is low-grade filmmaking not at its worst, but pretty far down there to be sure. The picture scrapes together a halfway decent cast but fails to capture the imagination, get the blood flowing, or otherwise excite any of the senses, except, perhaps, the sense of déjà vu, that feeling that this plot and this style have been done elsewhere, and better, before. That makes it pretty standard fare for The Asylum, an easy choice for studio fans and an obvious pass for those who like their movies with a little more creativity and polish.

There's no magazine in the gun. Come on, Asylum. This is the kind of easily preventable nonsense that really hurts your movies well above and beyond the usual macro suspects.

The President's daughter has been kidnapped by a ruthless Eastern European terrorist named Ulrika (Brigitte Nielsen), a hardcore warlord whose demand for the girl's safe return is a U.S.-backed overthrow of her government and the guarantee of her ascendancy into power. Rather than risk Navy SEALs and other highly specialized U.S. assets to rescue the high value target (maybe they were all occupied in the fight against Ebola), the government calls upon four female inmates to get the job done. They include Cassandra Clay (Zoë Bell), an ex-Army ranger and former member of Delta Force; Kat Morgan (Kristanna Loken), a former Marine scout sniper; Mei-Lin Fong (Nicole Bilderback), a pilot and explosives expert; and Raven (Vivica A. Fox), a highly skilled ex-government spook.

Mercenaries is, at best, a fairly uneven experience. It takes a good 20 minutes for the team of female inmates to assemble and gear up, not an eternity but quite a lengthy process considering the relative dullness that accompanies the lead-up to the team's construction. Worse, the plot line is dull and the action is no great shakes. The movie continues to favor a lethargic pace even when the action is set into motion, offering only sporadic, and even then poorly planned and executed, run-and-gun battle scenes that are themselves lacking in visual creativity and excitement. The plot offers up a few minor surprises throughout, but considering how completely un-engaging the movie is beyond its simple popcorn premise, they don't add much of a charge to the experience when it's all said and done, and that they're even somewhat transparent ahead of time only furthers to lessen their impact. It's a solid enough idea for a movie -- even if it's absurd in theory -- but the execution leaves much to be desired.

Even the things the movie gets relatively right don't help it all that much. The Asylum has cobbled together a few "name" actresses to play in the movie. Yet even some experienced vixens can't really help a flat script, a low-budget production, an obviously tight shooting schedule, and an evident, but not blatantly obvious, disinterest from some in the cast. Performances are frequently languid, not overtly so but there's a clear lack of precision in gunplay and concern in drama. Part of that, of course, is the flat script, but even the action scenes show little in the way of authentic replication or even the sort of over-the-top antics that help make movies like The Expendables so much fun. Vivica A. Fox looks like she's playing "cops and robbers" with a bunch of five-year-olds in the backyard as she wildly wields her twin Glock handguns in one particularly good example of the movie's bad technical craftsmanship. It still works well enough as completely mindless entertainment, but the shortage of technical mastery, the absence of complete concern from the cast, and the shortcut script make for a rather poor overall experience.

Mercenaries Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mercenaries features a fairly standard-issue Asylum 1080p transfer. The picture, sourced from a digital shoot, takes on a slightly flat and glossy but nevertheless nicely detailed appearance, revealing suitably complex facial and clothing textures with ease. Supportive details, such as background information and scuff and plastic lines on guns, look rather good, too. Image clarity is strong, and there's never a truly dull or fuzzy moment, save for some shots containing lower-grade visual effects. Colors are satisfyingly bold and accurate. The palette isn't too terribly varied or dazzling, but what's here looks fine. Flesh tones satisfy in presentation, and black levels never favor crush or unnatural brightness. Light banding, very minor blockiness, a few spikes in noise, and a few washed-out skies are all that really hold this one back. In short, this is another good-to-great effort from The Asylum.

Mercenaries Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mercenaries arrives on Blu-ray with a satisfying DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Audio is big and widely spaced. Music, when it's full-blast and not minor beats underneath dialogue added for faux drama, enjoys a robustness befitting the film. It's wide across the front and heavy in the rears, perhaps a hair too aggressive and a touch absent in pinpoint clarity, but it gets the job done for an Action film soundtrack. The track features several strong directional effects. An RPG projectile zips through the stage. Gunfire erupts from several corners of the listening area with solid pop and presentation. Some strong, rattly bass rumbles near the end. All variety of action effects are potent and aggressive, a nice compliment to a movie that needs to find some juice somewhere outside its visuals and story. Dialogue reproduction is solid, firmly grounded in the center and enjoying natural presence and clarity.

Mercenaries Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Mercenaries contains the usual brief array of Asylum supplements.

• 'Making Of' Featurette (1080p, 8:01): Cast and crew discuss various aspects of the film, mixed together with footage from the shoot and clips from the film.
• Gag Reel (1080p, 2:14).
• Trailers (1080p): Additional Asylum titles.

Mercenaries Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mercenaries is an obvious knock-off of the superior Expendables franchise that does most everything halfheartedly. And where The Asylum is concerned, "half" is pretty high. The lack of scope and scale, the lackluster script, the languid gunplay, and the semi-disinterested performances all contribute to a dull, albeit passably dull, movie that might pass itself off just well enough as background noise but it never merits a full-attention watch. The Asylum's Blu-ray release of Mercenaries features solid enough video and audio. Supplements are limited to the typical Asylum making-of and gag reel. Worth a rental for die-hard action movie fanatics.