Former Legionnaire Maxx (Dominiquie Vandenberg) is now one of the best mercenaries money can buy. His boss, LeClerk (Louis Mandylor) holds him in high regard as part of his team. They carry out mission after mission with ease until they make a trip to South America to put the lid on a cocaine operation. Everything quickly falls apart when Maxx injures his leg before witnessing one of his fellow mercs attempting to rape a woman who is part of the cartel. He can’t stand by and let it happen, so he interferes only to be left for dead with a slit throat. After his team leaves, Maxx makes it to a nearby village where he is nursed back to health by Father Elias (Carmen Argenziano). Seeing the good in Maxx, Father Elias allows him to stay in the village in exchange for help maintaining his church. This simple way of life awakens something inside him and Maxx wants to leave behind his violent past and start over. It’s never easy to walk away, and he will soon be faced with his demons when the same group of mercenaries he once fought with invades the village and threaten to destroy his newfound love of life.
At this point, it almost feels weird to watch a Jesse V. Johnson film without Scott Adkins (they’ve done five films together over the last few years), but leading man Dominiquie Vandenberg is just as capable of carrying a film and he proves it in The Mercenary. The plot is pretty basic, and we sort of know how things will go, but Vandenberg is a unique personality. Johnson is an expert at knowing his talents’ strengths and weaknesses, playing into what works best for the character. He isn’t your typical leading man, but he has a grace in his movements and his face looks as if he could tell a million stories. I love that Louis Mandylor is in The Mercenary, he has long been a favorite character actor of mine and I could watch this guy in just about anything. I first began following his career when he co-starred on the first season of Martial Law with Sammo Hung and Kelly Hu.
Action is the main reason most people will want to watch The Mercenary, and it delivers in spades. I mentioned before the gracefulness of Vandenberg’s movements, and it’s most evident in the numerous fight scenes scattered throughout the ninety-minute runtime. These action scenes are not for the faint of heart, either. It’s insanely brutal at times and during one particular moment I may have cringed, but only a little.
Johnson and Vandenberg have worked together many times before, as recently as 2019’s Triple Threat and as far back as the 2005 actioner Pit Fighter, so it’s great to see these guys evolving their craft with one another. The Mercenary isn’t going to blaze any trails, but having scaled it back a bit from his last couple films, it’s a perfect action piece to start out the new year.
The Mercenary hits DVD and Digital on January 7th from Uncork’d Entertainment.

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