this movie has some of the best action I've seen in a steven seagal movie since 'exit wounds', and seagal is truly on bad ass form, the story is surprisingly complex and some some good twists and turns, and the action is brutal, and big, there are some really good war scenes in this, and some of the best fight scenes seagal has done since 'fire down below', the cast is also solid in this, seagal hasent been this good in a movie for a while so it was good to see that he still had it, and the fight scene in the bathroom is long, brutal and 100 percent seagal, i enjoyed this movie, and i think seagal fans are gonna too, because this is the movie they've beeen waiting for, i recommend

Mercenary for Justice starts as corrupt CIA agent John Dresham (Luke Goss) & all round bad guy Anthony Chapel (Roger Guenveur Smith) arrange the kidnapping of the French Ambassador in a remote African island using hard as nails Gulf war veteran John Seeger (co-executive producer & uncredited co-writer Steven Seagal) & some of his mates as cover, plausible deniability & all that apparently. John isn't happy when he learns the truth & is even less happy when his best mate Radio Jones (Zaa Nkweta) is killed during the fighting. Back in the US & John promises to look after Radio's widow Shondra (Faye Peters) & young son Eddie (Tumi Mogoje) but Chapel is hired by billionaire Greek Arab arms dealer Ahmet Dasan (Peter Butler) to break is son out of prison & kidnaps both Shondra & Eddie in order to force Seeger to carry out the break. Seeger isn't happy & his mood doesn't improve & sets out to gain revenge on those who double crossed him & are threatening the lives of his friends family...This Arubian, American & South African co-production was directed by Don E. FauntLeRoy who is also credited as cinematographer Mercenary for Justice was the second of three awful straight-to-video/DVD action flicks he made with Seagal (the other's being Today You Die (2005) & Urban Justice (2007) which are just as bad) & at this stage I seriously doubt whether Seagal will ever make a decent action film again, entertaining action fare such as Hard to Kill (1990), Marked for Death (1990), Out for Justice (1991) & the two Under Siege (1992, 1995) films seem a distant memory from a very long time ago. One of the main problems with Mercenary for Justice in my opinion is that it's insanely complicated & tries to be too clever, there are all sorts of vague double crosses & ulterior motives & supposed twists & turns that are just so contrived & convoluted that they make little sense & are so badly written & presented end up making the whole film feel like a complete unfocused mess. No-ones motives are ever fully revealed, I still don't really know what that CIA guy played by Luke Goss is all about, why were Seagal & his men fighting at the start, who was Chapel & why did he hire people he couldn't control & the whole thing is just a mess that jumps around from scene to scene trying to be clever but it's so poorly put together it's annoyingly confusing. Even though it only lasts for about an hour & a half it feels much, much longer which is never a good sign, the dialogue is terrible, the character's are not fleshed out & their motives are never made clear & there isn't even much action in it which is the final nail in it's coffin really as far as I am concerned.These days Seagal is fat, you can see it & he's out of shape & not that menacing & he looks sluggish, slow & unconvincing in the action scenes. There are one or two fights which are quite violent but for the most part he leaves the action to other people & is it any coincidence that one of the other main character's is fatter than he is? I am sure that guy Bulldog is there to make sure Seagal isn't the fattest person on screen during the action! During the old days Seagal's action scenes were based around brutal martial arts violence & amusing one-liners, these days he can barely walk yet alone pull those moves off. There are a few explosions, a few shoot-outs & some fights but nothing special or that memorable.According to the IMDb this had a budget of about $15,000,000 which I don't believe for a second, there is no way this cheap looking film cost that much. Apparently shot in Bulgaria & South Africa. The acting sucks, Seagal minus pony tail mumbles his way through the film as usual while Luke Goss has managed to put this turkey behind him having appeared in the recent Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).Mercenary for Justice is another terrible low budget shot in Eastern Europe action flick with Seagal who really should either lose some weight or call it a day & realise that he can't make these action films anymore. Not good.

Steven Seagal might be getting old and he also might not have the same shape he had 20 years ago but he certainly still can make a movie great just by being in it.Actually, this movie itself is pretty good. A lot of money has been spent on making it realistic and entertaining. Reminds you of the good old days when Van Damme and Seagal were backed by big budgets.Mercenary for Justice is a colorful film filled with explosive action scenes, great dialogues and one-liners, fight scenes in which Seagal actually takes part. It had been a while since I really saw him perform anything close to his Aikido moves. The balance between realism and utter irrealism is just perfect.You got to remind yourself that action movies are a genre in themselves. Lots of folks try to bring them down for various reasons...they just don't get the point. Just like romantic comedies and politic thrillers all follow some basic rules, action movies are also lead by a set of pre-requisites that you just expect to be there. Villains you can hate, a hero you can love, a beautiful girl, guns roaring...The production is good. Direction sometimes reminded me of "24 esquire" hand held camera. Little part of scenes are sometime fast-forwarded to get a feeling of speed. Well... this still is a direct to video release, I guess they have to include some cheesy stuff.The only downside to this picture is the story. It's pretty hard to follow but it does keep the characters on the move.

What in God's name has happened to Steven Seagal? Sure, his movies were never... the intellectual type but this film is so bad he should be ashamed to have done it. The action is boring, the story/script is a joke (where did the blonde from the beginning go? Where did Bulldog come from?), the characters are flawed (ie. John and Maxine kill everybody in the bank but when some guy asks not to shoot him John just punches him in the balls?!?) and the acting from the supporting cast is on porn-level. And that so called high security prison with it's 20 guards? It looked like it would cave in after the next storm. After this Steve should really consider to either stop acting or wait for a decent script to come along...