Essential
Summary
Expect No Mercy delivers the action goods with constant fight scenes and impressive explosions; Vinegar Syndrome have done some of their best work here with new interviews with Billy and Jalal and several others involved with the film. This is a must have for fans.
Plot: Justin Vanier (Billy Blanks) is a highly trained and deadly agent for an elite police force known as the Federal Security Bureau. After a fellow undercover agent turns up dead, Justin is recruited to infiltrate a high tech martial arts training facility known as the Virtual Arts Academy, where students are trained in combat situations using virtual reality. Once inside the facility, Justin is to make contact with another undercover agent named Eric (Jalal Merhi) who believes that the academy is really a front for a team of hired assassins run by their power hungry leader, Warbeck. With fear of their covers getting blown, Justin and Eric must face off with computer generated opponents in a series of simulated fights that have real-life consequences.
Featuring state-of-the-art computer graphics for the time, EXPECT NO MERCY puts a unique spin on the virtual reality films that were popular in the 90s. Featuring no-holds-barred martial arts action and solid performances from Billy Blanks (TC 2000), Jalal Merhi (Tiger Claws), and the lovely Laurie Holden (TV’s The Walking Dead). Vinegar Syndrome Archive is proud to present this truly one-of-a-kind martial arts experience on Blu-ray and restored in 4k from its 35mm original camera negative.
Review: I finally got my hands on Vinegar Syndrome’s Blu-ray of the Billy Blanks and Jalal Merhi starring Expect No Mercy. I hadn’t watched it for a couple of years and forgot what a fun time it is; it’s very much of that era as virtual reality was this potentially amazing new thing and it looked like it was going to become a huge part of our futures. It went away for a while but it has made a come back in recent years, but we’re not quite at the levels sci-fi movies predicted.
In Expect No Mercy a maniacal leader called Warbeck (a scenery chewing Wolf Larson) trains assassins to become more efficient killing machines through virtual reality. A Federal Service Agent (Billy Blanks) is assigned to infiltrate the mysterious academy. He is joined by Vicki (Laurie Holden) and Eric (Jalal Merhi) in stopping Warbeck once and for all.
At 90 minutes Expect No Mercy is packed with fight scenes and explosions with the finale particularly impressive. Like Jalal Merhi and Billy Blanks’ other movies, this is an easy watch and never dull. Obviously, some of the effects are very dated, but this was several decades ago and considering the film’s limited budget I thought there were some cool ideas on display.
One of the highlights is watching Billy Blanks have an epic climactic fight scene with his real life brother Michael, who plays the henchman, Spyder. Blanks was always one of my favourite on-screen fighters and any time he and Jalal did a movie together it was a guaranteed good time.
On this Blu-ray set there are some fascinating special features:
- Region Free Blu-ray
- Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
- Commentary track with producer/actor Jalal Merhi
- Commentary track with director Zale Dalen
- “Pan the Camera” – an interview with actor Billy Blanks and Jalal Merhi
- “I Like Telling Stories” – an interview with director Zale Dalen
- “Physical Dialogue” – an interview with actor Anthony De Longis
- Original video trailers
- EXPECT NO MERCY: The Video Game – trailer, intro and play-through for the Windows 3.1 video game based on the movie
- Double-sided poster
- Reversible cover artwork
- English SDH subtitles
The conversation with Jalal and Merhi alone is worth the price of this Blu-ray; Expect No Mercy was nearly going to be Talons of the Eagle 2 and it could have easily worked. I didn’t know that before; we also find out that another action star was going to be cast but it sounds like their ego got in the way. We don’t find out who it was…
I loved seeing the promo for the Windows 3.1 videogame which was based on the movie; it’s nearly 30 minutes long and felt like reuniting with old friends. The other features are also interesting especially the interview with Anthony De Longis who plays the main henchman, Damian.
Overall, Expect No Mercy is one of my favourite Vinegar Syndrome releases; not only is the movie fun, but the special features are fantastic and really go into the making of the movie in entertaining detail.