The Mercenary has Vandenberg as Maxx, the best at what he does, who almost dies in a mission in South America gone wrong. Nursed to health by priest in a remote area, he finds a new purpose working among the villagers there. But his violent past is never too far behind, and he now has a chance for redemption when his old mercenary gang, led by Louis Mandylor, comes to town to violently rule over the villagers. After training the villagers to defend themselves, Maxx realizes it's ultimately on him to take down his old crew. They won't know what hit them.
This is the extreme, high-octane Jesse V. Johnson action you came for. Vandenberg is more than up to the task as Johnson's action muse to lead this, and we get a scene right away that let's us know what we're in for. It does drag a bit in spots as we're developing the story line based on Maxx's redemption, plus I think it does suffer a bit from not having bigger names; but you can't front on this level of action, and Johnson and Vandenberg, along with the rest of the cast and crew, give us something that is entertaining and worth the stream. I also liked Johnson bringing in a Western motif, and working in the tradition of the masterless ronin, but then putting his own spin on them so we know it's uniquely Johnson. Of the three films Johnson had come out in 2019, this isn't quite the classic Avengement was, but this is still pretty sweet and worth checking out.
We're now at 11 director's credits for Johnson, which again, as directors go, other than Albert Pyun, is a healthy tag number on here. We still have a good amount of stuff of his to watch and review, plus he has 6 projects in either post-production or pre-production, so we won't be exhausting his filmography any time soon. The thing about Johnson that I think is really important, is while not every film of his is Avengement, there's a high floor to his work, especially his stuff from the late 2010s on, which means there's always going to be a level of quality when we see one of his projects available on streaming. That's a big deal in a world where there are so many options to stream on places like Tubi and Hulu, if I can go in and know my 90-100 minutes are going to be well-spent, that's something that needs to be celebrated. Johnson's one of the best in the action directing world, and this film here demonstrates that. He takes a simple, clean story, with simple, clean sets, and then surrounds himself with great stunt workers and people who know how to shoot action, and gives us fantastic, inspired stuff.
This is only our third Dominique Vandenberg film ("Dominiquie" in the credits) film on the site, the other two being Johnson films as well, Triple Threat and Alien Agent. When I say he's Johnson's muse, it's like there's a synergy in their film making, even more so than what Johnson has with Scott Adkins, and that actor-director pairing is pretty prodigious. It's almost like Johnson unleashes Vandenberg on us when we watch the movie, and Vandenberg leans into being unleashed. The problem, unfortunately, is he doesn't have the "it" factor of a Scott Adkins, so I don't know if Johnson can sell a project centered around him like he can an Adkins, or maybe an Olga Kurylenko. That's fine, I'm okay with Johnson centering a film around Vandenberg to give us an action movie for action movie aficionados. Vandenberg might not be the name Adkins is, or Frank Grillo, or any number of names we expect to see on the tin, but he delivers where it counts, and as an action fan it would be great to see Vandenberg and Johnson team up some more to give us more films like this.
Like Jesse V. Johnson, where this film is his 11th on the site, this is also Louis Mandylor's 11th. He's been working a lot over the past 5 or so years, almost in that Eric Roberts vein, but these aren't one-and-done parts, at least with what we've been seeing on here. He's playing more robust roles, like in this film where he plays the main baddie, and doing a great job at it. These baddies are great foils to our heroes, which in a film like this where we have Vandenberg who doesn't speak much, the actor playing the baddie needs to not only develop their own character, but their performance helps to develop the hero too,and Mandylor pulls that off. In addition to Johnson, he works a lot with another director/producer we see on here often, R. Ellis Frazier, so between the two of them, we'll be seeing Mandylor a lot in the future. Is a Hall of Fame nod a possibility? If he keeps this kind of work up, I think so.
Finally, among Mandylor's mercenary team is Alina Andrei, an accomplished stunt performer and weapons expert. She's good in her role, as are a lot of the stunt performers Johnson casts, but seeing her in this had me thinking, especially with the new Expendables movie coming out soon, how we need a re-do of Mercenaries, the Asylum's female Expendables, and Jesse V. Johnson would be the perfect person to direct it. Imagine some of the names. Andrei would be one. Bring Zoe Bell back. Add in Olga Kurylenko, Natalie Burn, and Amy Johnston. And of course, give Cynthia Rothrock a bigger part. How fantastic would that be? With those names and Johnson behind it, it could be something really special, something potentially on the level of an Avengement, and the kind of movie those names I mentioned deserve to show everyone what they can do.
And with that, let's wrap this up. As of this writing you can stream this free in the States on Tubi. It's an action movie for action fans, Johnson, Vandenberg, and company deliver. If you've seen Avengement and you're looking for more Jesse V. Johnson, this is a great place to go next.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8408218
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