Blu-ray Synopsis: 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. (91 Mins)

 

Views: Jalal Merhi's Expect No Mercy is a mid-90s sci-fi martial arts film that took the idea of virtual reality down a different road from all the other movies toying with the same gimmick around this time. Special agent Justin Vanier is assigned to infiltrate a martial arts-academy and find another undercover agent on the inside, where they then must team-up together to bring down the power-hungry Warbeck – a madman who has been using the school as a front to hire out his team of deadly assassins. But once inside, their cover is blown and both agents must fight for their lives; both in the real world and in Warbeck's virtual reality!

 

I remember having this fun little flick on VHS back when it first came out. Back then, I wrote it off as just another North American action film with laughable graphics and some fun fight scenes and never even entertained the cheap-ass DVD version that I bought years later. Mind you, I wasn't the only one! Most of Jalal Merhi's films were met with the same attitude such as TC 2000, Talons Of The Eagle, Fearless Tiger, and others. Videotape quality and 4:3 televisions didn't really show these kind of films in the right light, but now – thanks to Vinegar Syndrome – the best of Merhi's films have been 4K restored and released on Blu-ray, and Expect No Mercy proudly joins the likes of his Tiger Claws Trilogy, TC 2000, and Talons Of The Eagle to give fans the chance to experience his films the way they were meant to be seen. Now, watching Expect No Mercy in its full glory on Blu-ray, I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and felt like I was seeing a brand new film for the first time. Yes the cheesy dialogue was still there, as were a few questionable moments of actions and costume choices, but overall I have to say that this was one of Jalal's more solid pictures with everyone giving a pretty decent performance and plenty of exciting martial arts action to keep action fans happy. I guess, for me, the only negatives would be the exaggerated villain in Warbeck and the computer graphics used when the fighters where in the virtual reality world (as well as a few of the chosen opponents like a clown and dominatrix). But I have to remind myself that this was the mid-1990s – a period where SFX hadn't quite been mastered, men with long-hair were always cast as the bad guys, and I didn't really cared much for this era; often disregarding movies (like this) because of it. But since having this Vinegar Syndrome release in my collection, I've already watched Expect No Mercy twice over two days with one of those times spent listening to Jalal Merhi's commentary, which was actually quite interesting.

 

French action star, Olivier Gruner; star of Albert Pyun's fantastic Nemesis, Angel Town, and Merhi's very own collection of The Circuit movies and television show – was originally cast as special agent Justin Vanier due to a demand by Merhi's new distributors, Alliance. But as he wanted to be the hero of a one-man show and had been over-worked on his previous projects, Gruner opted to step out of the role which allowed Billy Blanks to jump back in there – Jalal's initial choice and my preferred star out of them both. While he had been playing supporting roles since the late 80s, real-life martial artist Billy Blanks came to the attention of martial arts movie fans when he starred as Khan in Ng See Yuen's King Of The Kickboxers alongside Loren Avedon. While some smaller appearances would follow over the next couple of years in films like Timebomb, The Last Boy Scout, and The Master with Jet Li, Billy would start his film journey with his old friend Jalal Merhi in the fun Talons Of The Eagle in 1992. The pair would continue with TC 2000 before going on to do their own projects, only to re-join for Expect No Mercy a couple of years later. Of course, at the same time Billy was taking the world by storm with his self-made workout program, Tae-Bo, that took him on a whole new journey and often saw him appearing as himself in many shows and movies that followed. In 2021, Billy starred in an episode of Jalal Merhi's television adaptation of The Circuit which has been their only project together since this film. Born in Brazil to Lebanese parents, Jalal Merhi emigrated to Canada as a young adult to study and continue the family jewellery business. While he stuck with his love for competitive martial-arts, Jalal soon formed his production company, Film One, where he would begin his journey as a writer, producer, director, and star of many independent movies and television shows. One of his first big hits was with the brilliant Tiger Claws, that saw him star alongside Cynthia Rothrock and Bolo Yeung. Fearless Tiger, Talons Of The Eagle, and TC 2000 would follow but 1994 would see him make his directorial debut with Operation Golden Phoenix. With over 20 films as a producer and a host of television shows behind him, Jalal Merhi has proven to be one of Canada and independent cinema's most busiest and successful film journeymen who is still going strong today. I've always enjoyed seeing the pair of them together on screen, and while it may seem that they have done it many times over the years, Blanks and Merhi have actually only shared the screen in 3 movies altogether.

 

Here, the pair are joined by the beautiful Laurie Holden – star of The X Files, The Shield, The Walking Dead, and The Boys – who looks great as one of the academy staff that finds themselves choosing which side to fight for, and all round hunky German-Canadian actor Wolf Larson replaces (Jalal's choice of) Gary Daniels in the role of the power-hungry Warbeck. While he had been appearing in some television shows since the mid-80s, Wolf got his big break when he was cast as the small screen version of Tarzan in the early 90s show of the same name. After 75 episodes, and somewhat of a household name to many, Larson would replace Daniels in another move by Alliance in a bid to help sell Expect No Mercy to a wider audience. Did it work? Who knows – but he does a fine job in the role and delivers enough smarmy cheese to make him a fun bad guy and big boss to a number of fine fighters including Anthony De Longis; an actor, choreographer and weapons expert who has done countless work with many games designers as well as appearing in films such as Circle Of Iron, Jaguar Lives, The Sword & The Sorcerer, Masters Of The Universe, and Fearless with Jet Li, since making his acting debut in the early 60s. He stars alongside the talented Michael Blanks – brother of Billy – along with Canadian veteran actor and stuntman Real Andrews, and recognisable character actor Sam Moses from films such as Ghostbusters, Adventures In Babysitting, Short Circuit 2 and more...

 

The film is directed by TV director Zale Dalen, a man who made his directorial debut with the film Skip Tracer followed by Hounds Of Notre Dame before going on to television shows such as Airwolf, Friday The 13th: The Series, 21 Jump Street, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and more. I have to say that there certainly wasn't anything overly exciting about his approach, but he still does a great job in keeping things smooth and tight. The martial-arts action is handled by Billy Blanks, Jalal Merhi, and Anthony De Longis respectively and is actually quite enjoyable for the most part. Jalal had gained the support of many martial-arts schools from the Ontario region to give the academy the same scope as Enter The Dragon, with hundreds of young fighters spread far and wide across the campus practising their moves. Aside from the virtual reality training, Expect No Mercy definitely delivers on action and will surely please any fans of 90s fight flicks that are looking for a good time. As mentioned, I really enjoyed going back to watch it – and more so thanks to its new restoration which really won me over. While it still has its flaws (obviously), Expect No Mercy is a worthy piece from Merhi's collection and a film I would happily go back to watch again!

 

Overall: Action packed and full of 90s cheese, Expect No Mercy is a fun film with plenty of martial arts action!

 

Blu-ray Extras: 4K Restoration, Audio Commentary with Jalal Merhi, Audio Commentary with Zale Dalen, Interview with Billy Blanks & Jalal Merhi, Interview with Zale Dalen, Interview with Anthony De Longis, Original Video Trailer, Expect No Mercy The Game: Trailer, Intro & Play-through of the game based on the movie