Bullet Points: Mercenary
In my time as a movie reviewer I have learned that there are two ways to make an Olivier Gruner film watchable. 1) Limit the amount of dialogue that Gruner’s character has and 2) Surround Gruner with a solid supporting cast.
The subject of this edition of Bullet Points, 1996’s Mercenary, utilized both methods and was a better movie for it.
- Cold and Emotionless: Those are two words that could describe Olivier Gruner’s character, Captain Karl “Hawk” May. May is by profession a mercenary, which makes sense since the title of the movie is Mercenary. Being cold and emotionless are great traits for a mercenary to have, after all a mercenary is a hired gun, he’s doing what he is paid to do. He’s not necessarily fighting for a cause he believes in, instead he is renting out his special set of skills to get a dirty job done. Cold and emotionless are also easy attributes to convey for a less than polished actor like Gruner. When it comes to fighting, Gruner is the real deal. Not only in the realm of martial arts, but the man has a legitimate military background, which adds a level of authenticity to this movie.
- The Players: Our movie begins with a lavish party being thrown in honor of a professor who has ruffled some feathers in his native country. The party is being thrown by wealthy business man Jonas Ambler (John Ritter). We are introduced to Ambler’s hot wife Joanna, Ambler’s right hand man Alan Bailey and Ambler’s head of security Jack Cochran (played by the one and only Ed Lauter). The party is soon the epicenter of a terrorist attack being led by a guy who goes by the name of Phoenix (Martin Kove of Karate Kid and To Be the Best fame). Professor Majdi is killed, but so is Ambler’s wife. Ambler is now out for revenge and is looking for a guy who hates Phoenix as much as he now does.
- The Hawk Has Landed: Fortunately for Ambler there is a man who hates Phoenix as much as he does, and that man is Capt. Karl May or as he is better known, Hawk. Jack Cochran knew of Hawk from their days together in NATO Special Forces. Cochran also knew of Hawk’s personal vendetta against Phoenix. When Hawk learns that Jonas Ambler wants to tag along on this mission and be the one who actually pulls the trigger and kills Phoenix, Hawk refuses stating that it is too dangerous bringing an inexperienced many like Ambler along, plus he is concerned that Ambler’s emotions will compromise the mission. Conveniently, after refusing to help Ambler, Hawk’s long time associate McClean (Robert Culp) is busted for smuggling drugs. The drugs were actually planted on him and he was set up, but now he is facing spending the rest of his life in prison… unless Hawk can get a rich and powerful businessman with some stroke to use his influence and get McClean out… now Ambler has a major bargaining chip on his side and Hawk, who may not be the most warm hearted guy in the world but by God he is loyal to his friends, agrees to help Ambler take out Phoenix since Ambler pulled some strings and got McClean out of prison.
- A Turn for the Worse: Once Hawk, Ambler and the team get to Phoenix’s mountain top fortress, they find out that Professor Majdi was not Phoenix’s intended target. Phoenix reveals that Jonas Ambler was the man he was paid to kill that day. But who hired him to do it? I’ll let you peel back that layer of the onion yourself. But needless to say, someone was planning on Hawk and Ambler not returning alive from their mission. I would like to say that Martin Kove did a fantastic job as Phoenix and to me stole the show. The part ended up being much smaller than I had imagined it would be when the movie started, but Kove did what any great actor does and maximized his screen time minutes. We get to see Phoenix fight a guy in a ring of fire and we even get a Kove/Gruner sword fight!
Mercenary was another enjoyable Olivier Gruner movie experience for me. This was a team effort with Gruner bringing his action hero experience (both in film and real life) and the supporting players bringing a lot to the table themselves. Ritter was great in the role of Jonas Ambler, playing the determined fish out of water. After years of seeing Ritter in more comedic roles, it was a definite change of pace to see him in an action movie. Robert Culp was perfect in the advisor, almost father figure like role for Hawk. I’ve already raved about Martin Kove’s work in the film, but I need to point out the work of another veteran of action movies, Ed Lauter. Lauter was a big part of why I enjoyed this film, because the man made any film he was is in better.
I’m of the belief that bonus Bullet Points make any review they are in better, so here we go…
- Mine As Well Jump: I can’t recall another movie that used an air ram as much as Mercenary did. The air ram is a pneumatic device used by stunt performers to simulate their bodies being thrown into the air by an explosion. And Mercenary air rams the hell out of its stunt persons!
- Act Your Age: Jaime Pressly (The Journey: Absolution) has a small role in Mercenary as the victim of a kidnapping. Her character doesn’t have a name, but instead is listed as “Pre-teen American Girl”. Jaime would have been 18/19 years old during the production of this movie. And while I realize actors plays younger parts all the time, there’s no way a 19 year old Jaime Pressly was going to be confused for a pre-teen girl.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Olivier Gruner stab a guy in the eye, then this is the movie for you. That vicious manuever is part of the introduction to the Hawk character, which was probably my favorite scene in the whole movie… well that or the “La Bamba” one.
- Hawk Flies Again: Gruner would reprise the role of Captain Hawk in 1999’s Mercenary II: Thick & Thin. Having seen both films now, I can say that the original was much better, with more of a serious tone than the sequel. But the sequel is not bad, with the inclusion of comedian Robert Townsend making it more of an action comedy than a straight up action flick. Sadly Robert Culp does not reprise his role as McClean in the sequel.
