Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

romanorum1 At the opening, "Shotgun" by Jr. Walker and the All-Stars is being played in the background as a sloppy police bust at a Chicago car- wash transpires. The two involved policemen wring from one of the captured drug dealers a potential hit; someone wants a Cajun kingpin in New Orleans bumped off. The two policemen – Eddie Jillette (Richard Gere) and Joey Collins (Gary Basaraba) – decide to pose as the hit men. It ends badly as the New Orleans' Cajun kingpin strikes first. Among the dead is Collins in a hotel room; a blonde with a parrot tattoo on her right shoulder may be implicated. Wounded, Eddie is chased in the Chicago Stockyards but somehow escapes. After recovering and obtaining permission from his superior – tough cop Capt. Stemkowski (George Dzundza) – Eddie is off to New Orleans to track down the bad guys who murdered his partner. The Deveneux family is totally non-co-operative; Paul Deveneux had been one of the shady guys killed in Chicago. Eddie's next step is to find a parlor that tattoos blue parrots on people. Next he works his way into a rough club in Algiers, a dangerous section of New Orleans. There he finds the blonde dancing and sweating. He extricates her as his captive with difficulty: There is a car chase as Eddie and the blonde, Michel Duval (Kim Basinger), wind up underwater with the Cajun kingpin Losado (Jeroen Krabbe) and his gang desperately shooting at them. Eddie and his bait Michel escape for the moment. He soon learns that she was given to Losado by her mother when she was just thirteen years old; she has never been with another man. So she is a victim, not a hooker. Eventually Eddie is captured and escapes again, Michel is left to Losado. Eddie did figure out that Losado smuggles in cheap labor, which he sells to the Deveneux clique. In the denouement Eddie is alone in the Algiers Point Hotel waiting for the confrontation with Losado and his gang of thugs. Only a cat hangs there. Michel arrives as she has fallen in love with him. But one does wonder how an out-of-state cop can set everything up without police help. And during the shootout no one seems to hear anything: No alarm appears to sound, no fire trucks arrive despite the large fire, no police arrive to stop anything. Nope, not until the absolute end! And then the crowd finally congregates as various rescue vehicles arrive. There are some nice sets, as when Stemkowski shows up at the NOPD and is appalled at Eddie's treatment. There is also the steamy love scene between Michel and Eddie. Then again, it is strange that Eddie uses a rifle shot to break the handcuff chain tying Michel to him, an action that easily alerts his captors. He could have used heavy stones or tools in the house where he and Michel stayed alone. Gere seems to take control of the movie and is believable as a sufficiently tough cop. Basinger finds her niche, playing a sympathetic and abused woman. The two have genuine chemistry together, and filming on location is always a plus.

videorama-759-859391 We now see Mr Gere get tough as Eddie Jillete (dig the name, and he's not much of a shaver either), another Chicago cop who doesn't play by the rules. Opening with a funny stake out scene, with Gere and partner, who winds up dead, later, of course, (ooops! sorry to ruin it for ya) posing as car wash attendants, where they nab these two snitches, which leads to a higher chain of really bad dudes, who are part of a drug syndicate. Gere's partner being slayed, along with a contact supplier, has him on an adrenaline filled quest of revenge, (an excuse for the rest of the movie) that sees him travelling to the bayou, to find the mysterious and beautiful Michelle, the contact's girlfriends, who Gere doesn't mind slapping if, if slapped first as seen earlier, before all the bloodshed started. Gere's need for vengeance, is not a bad excuse, for a few reasons- you've got the beautiful Basinger, and a great action sequence that sees Gere and Basinger scarcely escaping the claws of the merciless head honcho, (Jerome Krabbe, an evily brilliant, masterful performance, way above his peers) fleeing across the river, from out of the pilings, and ending up in the swamps of Louisiana, drained, thirsty and hungry as hell. Personally, not buying the probability of them getting away clean like this, I also got drained watching them. The other reason besides Gere, purposely pranging the car of the contact's brother, who wasn't playing ball in the Q and A department, was the shootout scene in the abandoned hotel. Get this. Gere gave the proprietor a bunch of money for all the rooms, telling him "There's no future in it". The proprietor leaves as simply as that before Gere rigs the hotel with traps and guns. It is a great set up of tense atmosphere, before Gere has his moment of vengeance face to face with killer Krabbe. While really becoming a fan of Gere in the mid eighties, No Mercy, isn't one I held in memory. It was a good actioner, at viewing time, but nothing really stuck with me about it. A few weeks later it was totally forgettable, the only part, sticking with me, in those small weeks after, was them going through the mire and the swamps. Gere did bring out an intriguing new tough guy, unruly, who's disrespectful of women, he really needs a lesson in manners, and like the movie, his character wasn't one, you much cared about.

John Jennings This is not one of my top 10 films of all times, but it is a solid genre piece with some interesting variations and local color.After Katrina, a film about New Orleans has a special interest that adds a certain sauce.If there are any weaknesses, some of Bassinger's line deliveries are a bit weak. Otherwise, superb acting all around. I have always thought Gere was something of a lightweight, but very solid work here.Unlike many films, they get the weapons handling VERY right.I am a bit confused as to why this film has been rated so low on average. I have the video, and watch it about once a year.

vampiresan Look it is not that this movie is bad, it's just not very good. The usual hollywood mix of beautiful blonde girl(prostitute of course), vigilante cop, lots of car chases and several references to Basinger's breasts. Okay if you like that sort of thing, but even this has been done better elsewhere.Not recommended unless it's late night when there is nothing else on.