Richard
Kiel, better known as Jaws in the James
Bond movies, once remarked he only ever turned down four film roles in his
life and among them was the merc Virelli that ultimately went to Peter Fonda in
this week’s Classic Cannon entry Mercenary
Fighters. Whether or not Kiel made
the right decision is debatable as the Easy
Rider actor would ultimately play second fiddle to B-movie legend Reb Brown
and his infamous “Reb-el yells” in this largely forgotten but still fun chunk
of Golan-Globus late-80s action adventure trash.
While
the Go-Go Boys were indeed trying to boost their credibility with productions
like Barfly and Powwaqatsi, they were still up to their old tricks cranking out Braddock: Missing in Action III and Death Wish 4: The Crackdown. Mercenary
Fighters, briefly issued on DVD through MGM’s Limited Edition Collection,
doesn’t quite achieve the level of outlandish infamy the Go-Go Boys are known
for but fans of the typical Cannon Films fare still have plenty to chew on
here.
Set
in the fictitious African country known as Shinkasa (Gymkata’s Parmistan, anyone?), a band of international mercenaries
led by ruthless Col. Kyemba (Robert DoQui from Robocop) are hired to drive out native rebel villagers to make way
for an electric dam financed by a corrupt President. Enlisting Peter Fonda, James Mitchum, Robert
Whitehead, Ron O’Neal and Reb Brown as a character named T.J. Christian (believe
it or not), the various mercs are flown in with simple directive to clearing
out the counter-rebels: shoot to kill.
Much
like the simultaneously released Dolph Lundgren African set actioner Red Scorpion, Reb Brown’s hero once
deployed to fight the rebels grows sympathetic to their cause and finds himself
switching sides. Mercenary Fighters even tosses a love interest into the mix with Nurse
Ruth Warwick (Joanna Weinberg) being among the few standing between the natives
and the bullet of a gun. If this sounds
like typical low budgeted Cannon Films check-your-brain-at-the-door fodder, you’ve
probably been through more than your share of Chuck Norris or Michael Dudikoff
flicks.
That’s
not to say you’re just getting more of the same. While that’s largely true, this was among the
few times the “Reb-el yeller” graced the Go-Go Boys with his presence. Having already been around the block doing
these kinds of bullets-and-brawn low budget action flicks for various Italian
directors including Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso, Brown doesn’t disappoint
with arguably his cheesiest moment of pure 80s action machismo yet. With that poster image of the ripped
musclehead Brown firing a machine gun as explosions ignite around him with a
ferocious scowl as he bellows out that scream heard around the world, it could
be the quintessential Cannon Films image signifying sheer over-the-top ‘80s
action adventure “awesomeness”.
Despite
having a grating keyboard score by Howard Morgan and mostly serviceable
cinematography by regular Cannon Films go-to DP Daniel Schneor, Mercenary Fighters sports some genuinely
dangerous looking action stunts with explosions flipping some of the stuntmen
into somersaults and a pretty large kill count to boot. The film is notable for being one of Israeli
producer-director Riki Shelach Nissimoff’s few English language efforts with
his largely Middle-Eastern filmography pointing to Mercenary Fighters as something of an outlier in his career. Pretty clearly Menahem and Yoram were steering
this ship and for every high watermark in the joint producers’ time together,
they invariably aimed low with things like Mercenary
Fighters.
By
now the Go-Go Boys had produced and released Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and were in something of a
creative downturn, yet their trademark thrown-together action-adventure junk was
still plentiful enough to leave room for Reb Brown to do his thing. While Peter Fonda retains top billing, this
is largely Reb’s show with Ron O’Neal making an entertaining sidekick of sorts.
Mercenary Fighters is the kind of
film where you care less about quality than just wanting Reb Brown to burst
into his primal scream in the heat of battle and eat up those old fashioned
cheap thrills only the Go-Go Boys could possibly provide.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki