Movie Review : Mercenaries (2014)

 WildCinema Presents

Movie Review : Mercenaries (2014)

 The Lowdown

With the recent success of such ensemble movies as The Expendables and Fast and Furious 6 it was only natural that a female led action flick would come about. Most people assumed it would be the long in development "Expendabelles" movie that hollywood has been trying to put together, no sadly someone beat them to it. Asylum fills the void with their very own "chick flick" Mercenaries aka Prison Raid featuring such female action legends as Brigitte Nielsen, yeah you read that right Red Sonja is back baby. Sarcasm aside the cast is decent enough, starring stunt woman Zoe Bell, Terminator 3's Kristanna Loken and martial arts queen Cynthia Rothrock this had all the makings to be a decent action flick so does it deliver? Well not really seeing as this is an asylum movie, the CGI is terrible, the acting is wooden and the whole thing looks like it was shot on your next door neighbours camcorder but to be fair at times it is quite fun. The plot is thin as our female team infiltrate an enemy compound in order to rescue the presidents kidnapped daughter but the action is plentyful, its just a shame the shootouts are terrible, the hand to hand combat scenes however are much better and upto standard of what you would expect from this type of yarn.

Final Verdict

This type of movie was never going to win any awards so it should at least provide us with some kickass action but Mercenaries can barely even do that, the CGI blood and muzzle flashes are terrible and take you right out of the action and the choreography is bland to say the least, however the hand to hand combat scenes are competent so its not all bad, Zoe Bells martial arts skills are captured in stylish slow motion and look cool enough to make this straight to video trash watchable. Overall this movie falls short on what the trailer showed us, it looked like it was going to be a so bad its good kind of movie, instead we just got kind of a bad movie. The budget seems none existant, the cinematography is terrible and the action is mostly underwhelming. However the cast is great (i just wish Cynthia Rothrock got more screen time) and do the best with what they're given. Check this one out if you like any of the cast, or if you're B movie mad, just be expecting to laugh more than genuinely thrilled and you should be fine.

Rating

1.5 out of 5