Comeuppance Reviews
Carl "Hawk" May (Gruner) is a mercenary. Nicholas Turturro and Sam Bottoms (brothers of John and Timothy, respectively), play his two comrades-in-arms. It appears this time, a very rich woman, Patricia Van Lier (Christian) has paid the gang to retrieve her accountant, Charlie Love (Townsend), who has been taken hostage by rebels in the jungles of South America. Hawk goes deep into the foliage to find him, while the others stay behind and contact him via radio. Hawk does indeed find Charlie, and the two are the original odd couple: Hawk is serious and straight-faced, while Charlie is a joker. They must navigate all manner of traps, pitfalls and killer bad guys as they attempt to exit the jungle alive. But will Hawk snap at having to be subjected to Charlie's antics the whole time? Unfortunately, Mercenary II is just not very good. Even though it has reasonably high production values, and a decent cast, those two positives are smothered by a paint-by-numbers script which is nothing more than your standard jungle slog we've seen so many times before. Nicholas Turturro plays the "comedy irritant", the Joe Pesci-like Italian guy (with the code name "Pizza Man") who never shuts up and has an annoying nasal voice. How did he get into the Mercenary business anyway? Robert Townsend tries to liven up the proceedings with wacky dances, faces, and one-liners, but it's not enough to make the movie as a whole very interesting or engaging. Gruner is decent as the stone-faced Hawk, but the sheer stupidity of the whole venture is overwhelming.The movie doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. One moment it's a military-style shoot 'em up, the next it's a goofy comedy with Townsend mugging it up for the camera. This mix of serious and goofy can best be described as "goofius". The Rush Hour (1998) franchise brought this into the mainstream with seemingly big financial benefit...but instead of Jackie Chan, imagine Daniel Bernhardt, Van Damme, or Olivier Gruner as the straight man. Can anyone conclusively confirm that Bernhardt and Gruner are two different people? Have you ever seen them in the same place at the same time? Because if the aforementioned three men are indeed separate people, they should all star in a movie together. A confusing, confusing movie.The movie is probably TRYING to be good (and we should say that Claudia Christian is good in it, especially as the cover model for "Multi Billionaire" magazine), but a bunch of unnecessary pop-cultural references mixed in with some gun-shooting just isn't enough to get a movie off the ground. Mercenary II is in the vein of Perfect Target (1997), Decoy (1995) and Overkill (1996). If we're comparing your movie, in any way, shape or form to Overkill, RUN. Like Overkill, this movie was shot in Mexico and has an unbelievably lame ending.The writers behind Mercenary II must be thick, because the plot is thin. Avoid.For more action insanity, drop by www.comeuppancereviews.com
The Watchers Apprentice
To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting this movie to be much different than all the other low-budget actioners on the shelf at my local video store. I can say that any ideas I had about this movie are wrong.It may be low budget but it certainly isn't bad. To start off with the cast, even though I don't know any of them, do quite a good job. The two standouts are Olivier Gruner and Robert Townsend. These two men have to be the funniest team up since Murtaugh and Riggs! Robert Townsend is incredibly funny and delivers some truly funny lines throughout the movie. Olivier Gruner plays the straight man to his jokes perfectly. The other good thing about this movie is that the plot unfolds so well that, by the time all the explaining is done, you don't feel confused about it at all. A perfect nights entertainment 7/10
bookerjd
This movie is a 'must see' for all Olivier Gruner fans. It is his best work to date. (Even better than "Nemesis" in my opinion.) Although I liked the original "Mercenary", "Mercenary II" gave Gruner the opportunity to polish up his "Hawk" May character and make it shine. Robert Townsend played off Gruner like they were an old vaudeville team, introducing us to a whole new facet of the kickboxing champ. With clean photography, decent direction, and a good solid cast, this story went places I could not have predicted. This movie was aptly titled "Thick and Thin".
