No Mercy [Blu-ray]

Director: Richard Pearce Richard Pearce

Overview

High-powered gangsters move this crime drama along at a fast pace. When two cops, Eddie Jillette (Richard Gere) and Joe Collins (Gary Basaraba), hear about a contract out on local crime boss Losado (Jeroen Krabbe), they go undercover posing as hitmen, and the result is murder. Collins and the man who hired them, Paul Deveneux (Terry Kinney) are killed, and Jillette goes looking for the assassin. He ends up in New Orleans where he locates Michel Duval (Kim Basinger), the girlfriend of Deveneux now virtually held a prisoner by Losado. Jillette has his work cut out for him.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/17/2023
UPC:	0738329261481
Original Release:	1986
Rating:	R
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Language:	English
Time:	1:46:00
Sales rank:	6,068

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Richard Gere	Eddie Jillette
Kim Basinger	Michel Duval
Jeroen Krabbé	Losado
George Dzundza	Capt. Stemkowski
Gary Basaraba	Joe Collins
William Atherton	Allan Deveneux
Terry Kinney	Paul Deveneux
Bruce McGill	Lt. Hall
Ray Sharkey	Angles Ryan
Marita Geraghty	Alice Collins
Aleta Mitchell	Cara
Ray Brown	Benny Blue
Kim Chan	Old Asian Man
George Dickerson	Reblue
Raynor Scheine	Curtis
Carl Gordon	Lawrence
Victoria Edwards	Bernice
Annalee Jefferies	Susan
John Snyder	Miles
Caris Corfman	Waitress
Pearl Jones	Blind Woman
John Schluter	Policeman
Mike Bacarella	Driver
Harold Evans	Security Guard
Leon Rippy	Man #2
Bill Hart	Man #3
Thomas Rosales	Man #4
Charles Dutton	Sgt. Sandy

Technical Credits

James Carabatsos

Richard Pearce	Director
D. Constantine Conte	Producer
Michael Hausman	Executive Producer
James Carabatsos	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Two of the screen's sexiest stars sizzle in No Mercy, a graphic and occasionally brutal thriller set largely in the Louisiana bayou country. This 1986 release gave Richard Gere one of his relatively few chances to play a genuine tough guy, and he's properly hard-boiled as a Chicago cop whose partner is savagely slain during an undercover operation. Gere's pursuit of the killer leads him to New Orleans, where he falls for and spirits away the villain's Cajun concubine (Kim Basinger at her most ravishing). At that point, director Richard Pearce (Witness Protection) shifts into cat-and-mouse mode, downplaying the vigilante-cop theme and focusing the viewer's attentions on the fleeing lovers. The fine Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbe -- a once-ubiquitous presence in movie thrillers -- is coldly effective as the crime boss, and outstanding supporting turns are contributed by George Dzundza, William Atherton, and Ray Sharkey. Locations in and around New Orleans are stylishly photographed, giving the film a sultry atmosphere that perfectly suits its noirish plot. Exciting, suspenseful, and violent, No Mercy is also a slick star vehicle that showcases Gere and Basinger at their sensual best.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

Richard Pearce's over-the-top cop thriller features a game cast and makes good use of its evocative Big Easy locations. The film once again works over the ur-plot of a cop seeking revenge for his partner's murder, sending Richard Gere's undercover detective to New Orleans in search of the guilty party, a bayou gangster (Jeroen Krabbe), whose speciality is white slavery. That Kim Basinger is the bad guy's prime chattel has also piqued the cop's interest, and the scene in the take-no-prisoners Cajun dive in which Gere handcuffs himself to her is typical of the film's enjoyably lurid trashiness. The plot seems to evaporate as the torrid relationship between these two takes center stage, with Basinger's cold-water bath providing the film's only moment of genuine drama. Despite the moldy script, the camera work and art direction are superb throughout, dovetailing memorably in the Algiers Point scenes. Gere thankfully soft-pedals his narcissism here, and Krabbe and William Atherton stand out in an excellent cast which also includes Ray Sharkey, Charles S. Dutton, and Terry Kinney.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello