This is a great action-packed thriller. Chemistry between Gere and Basinger is excellent. Great acting by all & the musical score is awesome.

We now see Mr Gere get tough as Eddie Jillete (dig the name, and he's not much of a shaver either), another Chicago cop who doesn't play by the rules. Opening with a funny stake out scene, with Gere and partner, who winds up dead, later, of course, (ooops! sorry to ruin it for ya) posing as car wash attendants, where they nab these two snitches, which leads to a higher chain of really bad dudes, who are part of a drug syndicate. Gere's partner being slayed, along with a contact supplier, has him on an adrenaline filled quest of revenge, (an excuse for the rest of the movie) that sees him travelling to the bayou, to find the mysterious and beautiful Michelle, the contact's girlfriends, who Gere doesn't mind slapping if, if slapped first as seen earlier, before all the bloodshed started. Gere's need for vengeance, is not a bad excuse, for a few reasons- you've got the beautiful Basinger, and a great action sequence that sees Gere and Basinger scarcely escaping the claws of the merciless head honcho, (Jerome Krabbe, an evily brilliant, masterful performance, way above his peers) fleeing across the river, from out of the pilings, and ending up in the swamps of Louisiana, drained, thirsty and hungry as hell. Personally, not buying the probability of them getting away clean like this, I also got drained watching them. The other reason besides Gere, purposely pranging the car of the contact's brother, who wasn't playing ball in the Q and A department, was the shootout scene in the abandoned hotel. Get this. Gere gave the proprietor a bunch of money for all the rooms, telling him "There's no future in it". The proprietor leaves as simply as that before Gere rigs the hotel with traps and guns. It is a great set up of tense atmosphere, before Gere has his moment of vengeance face to face with killer Krabbe. While really becoming a fan of Gere in the mid eighties, No Mercy, isn't one I held in memory. It was a good actioner, at viewing time, but nothing really stuck with me about it. A few weeks later it was totally forgettable, the only part, sticking with me, in those small weeks after, was them going through the mire and the swamps. Gere did bring out an intriguing new tough guy, unruly, who's disrespectful of women, he really needs a lesson in manners, and like the movie, his character wasn't one, you much cared about.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a loose cannon detective loses his partner when the latter is killed by a loathsome criminal, so naturally the detective becomes obsessed with vengeance and tracks the killer down to their home turf. In this case, the home turf is New Orleans. A key element that our detective latches onto is the presence of a sultry young woman who is supposedly the "property" of the bad guy. Richard Gere probably wouldn't automatically come to a lot of minds as a leading contender for this sort of detective role, but he basically does alright, and he works well with leading lady Kim Basinger; both stars look great as always. But what really helps to make this a decent if unexceptional entertainment for this viewer is that New Orleans setting, which is a very healthy asset to any film set there. That unique New Orleans atmosphere is definitely present and accounted for. The film, competently directed by Richard Pearce, gets down to business quickly and keeps up a pretty good pace while offering a fair bit of excitement and violence. The script, by Jim Carabatsos, doesn't offer anything that's terribly out of the ordinary, but the actors make the most of it. The film *does* feature an excellent supporting cast: William Atherton plays yet another of his patented Jerk characters whose lights you just want to punch out the first moment you see him, Gary Basaraba is reasonably likable as the ill-fated partner (you just *know* he's a goner because he's the married one), George Dzundza is solid as Gere's weary boss who ultimately supports him in his quest for vengeance, Terry Kinney is another victim of our bad guy, Bruce McGill is a grumpy N.O. detective, and Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbe, who got effectively introduced to American audiences here, is nicely understated as the villain, sometimes exploding into violence but never going the obvious route of throwing temper tantrums. Look also for Charles S. Dutton in a bit, and the late, great Ray Sharkey in an amusing cameo as Angles Ryan. Good action sequences are a plus, as well as a striking music score by Alan Silvestri, one compelling (and seemingly obligatory) journey through a swamp, and the finale, taking place inside a burning motel, which is a definite corker. "No Mercy" isn't anything great or even that good, but it's not without its moments. Six out of 10.

"No Mercy" is a film which draws upon two cinematic traditions. The first is the "tough cop" thriller which first saw the light of day in the late sixties and early seventies in films like "Dirty Harry" and "The French Connection" and which was enjoying a new lease of life in the eighties.The hero of this film is Eddie Jillette, a Chicago cop who is investigating Paul Deveneux, the scion of a wealthy New Orleans family who has travelled to Chicago to hire the services of a professional hit man. In an attempt to entrap Deveneux, Jillette and his partner Joe pose as assassins for hire, but something goes wrong. Losado, the man Deveneux wants dead, is aware of his plans, and sends his own team of killers to Chicago. In a shootout, Jillette escapes, but Deveneux and Joe are killed. Jillette heads to New Orleans to investigate, but his presence is welcomed neither by Deveneux's family nor by the local police, and he soon finds himself in danger from Losado, who turns out to be a powerful local crime baron. Jillette's only ally (and she at first a reluctant one) is Michelle, Losado's beautiful mistress. (In the cast list her name is spelled as "Michel", but as that is the masculine form of the name this is presumably an error).The other tradition on which the film draws is that of neo-noir, the genre which uses modern cinema techniques in order to produce a contemporary equivalent of the classic films noirs of the forties and fifties. The film contains some of the traditional noir devices, such as the blonde femme fatale, with Kim Basinger playing the part that in the heyday of film noir would have been played by the likes of Lauren Bacall, Lizabeth Scott, Gloria Grahame or Rita Hayworth. (Well, I know Rita wasn't normally a blonde, but she was one in "Lady from Shanghai"). As with many films noirs the hero has an idiosyncratic morality based on personal honour; in his pursuit of Losado he is inspired not so much by an abstract belief in law or justice (like many "tough cops" he has a "shoot first, ask questions later" attitude) but a desire to avenge Joe, who was not only his partner but also a close personal friend.Like most neo-noirs, or at least like most good neo-noirs, "No Mercy" manages to find a visual equivalent to the brooding monochrome photography which was a frequent hallmark of the original noirs. As with many films in the genre, much of the action takes place at night, with the darkness acting as a visual symbol for the moral darkness which lies at the heart of the plot. There are some striking scenes of the industrial areas of Chicago, of the Louisiana bayous and of the sleazy, rundown quarters of New Orleans in which Losado operates.Richard Gere makes a stylish hero, but he is perhaps rather too laid back, lacking the sort of intensity that the likes of Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis and Gene Hackman brought to their tough cop heroes. Kim Basinger, however, is excellent; of all her performances that I have seen I would rank this one second only to the one she gave in an even better neo-noir, "L.A. Confidential". Kim brings to the role not only her usual sex appeal (in my view she was, together with Michelle Pfeiffer, the loveliest Hollywood star of the eighties) but also some subtle acting. At first she seems, both to the audience and to Jillette, like a hard, brassy femme fatale; Jillette even assumes that she is a hooker. Gradually, however, she softens as her tragic story becomes apparent (she was "sold" to Losado as a child) and both we, and Jillette, come to realise that she too is a victim.Like some of the other reviewers here, I am at a loss to understand why this film should have such a low rating on this board any why it should have attracted so many negative comments, with many seeing it as merely a "hackneyed" or "clichéd" thriller. Yes, it is a thriller, but it is possible to work creatively even within the confines of a formulaic genre, and "No Mercy" is in my view one of the better thrillers of the eighties. The action sequences, especially the final shootout in the burning flophouse, are effective enough to satisfy action-movie junkies, but there is more to the film than that. It is well acted, well photographed and well written- in all a superior sort of thriller. 7/10