Plot: A Marine platoon is shafted by the government when they’re left to die while on a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Africa. POW survivor John Carter (Zagarino) then winds up in Asia and gets set up by ex-soldier and general bad guy Larsen (Kove), who he must constantly battle in order to survive.
Frank Zagarino and Martin Kove star in this entertaining straight to video actioner from 1995. I’m going to refer to this movie as Without Mercy as Outraged Fugitive is a terrible name. In Without Mercy, Zagarino plays John Carter (no, not that John Carter), an ex-marine who is framed for murder by an ex-officer (Kove) now running illegal activities including a slave ring and bare-knuckle brawls.
Carter is a troubled individual who is captured and tortured at the beginning of the film and essentially suffers from PTSD; at one point he nearly rapes a woman but manages to control himself. Said woman Tanya (Ayu Azhari) has her own agenda and is working for the amazingly named Wolf Larsen (Kove).
At first, he and Carter get on well but it doesn’t take long for Larsen to be revealed as a bit of a monster and yet Kove manages to make him somewhat charismatic and arguably a more interesting character than Carter. It doesn’t help that midway through the movie the story focuses more on Tanya and Larsen with Carter disappearing for nearly 15 minutes of the movie. This does hurt the pacing just a little as does the overlong and slightly awkward sex scene in a hot tub.
Kove is at his sleazebag best here and he is so well cast as Larsen; it’s hard to picture anyone else playing him as he brings that roguish charm. What’s interesting about this movie is the characters are more than one note with their own motivations and ways of surviving.
Without Mercy is only 85 minutes long but manages to pack in some impressive fight scenes (coordinated by Zagarino himself), plenty of explosions and an action packed and satisfying finale.
I love how with these older movies they just ended and didn’t drag everything out in order to set up future movies. Simpler times, indeed…
Stephen Edwards provides the score, and he is an underrated talent in the action movie world having provided the music to Ninja, Close Range and Boyka: Undisputed 4. The music here has a somewhat catchy main theme especially towards the end of the movie, but there’s also a song about being lost in a foreign land which is an ear-worm tune as well.
Overall, Without Mercy is a fun Frank Zagarino vehicle with some decent action scenes and Martin Kove at his scene stealing best. It’s a mostly well-paced 85 minutes aside from a few convoluted moments, but this is a good time for fans of Zagarino and Kove.
