Olivier Gruner stars as Hawk, a commando who is hired by John Ritter(!) to take on Phoenix (Martin Kove) the Russian terrorist who killed Ritter's wife and our band of mercenaries have their share of problems since there is sabotage on the inside and Ritter goes the one man army route to get vengeance for his disturbingly (much) younger wife. This is probably the only time you'll ever see John Ritter as a one man army teaming up with Olivier Gruner kickboxing various people and jumping behind explosions. Truly this novelty is enough to give one the giggles but the biggest shock is that Mercenary is surprisingly well made. It's no classic and none of it is worth watching unless you're a fan of straight to video schlock, however this is probably the best movie i've seen from Olivier Gruner and the action sequences deliver the sufficient crunch that you would expect. Plus it's an action flick with John Ritter getting the lion's share of the action and that alone is something you won't see ever again. So Mercenary isn't as bad as I thought it would be, on the other hand this is movie reserved only for those who are fans of the genre. Hence why it's a two star rating.
* * out of 4-(Fair)
* * out of 4-(Fair)