Stometer
Save your money for something good and enjoyable
TrueHello
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Aiden Melton
The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
Roman Sampson
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
lhelbing
This is a great action-packed thriller. Chemistry between Gere and Basinger is excellent. Great acting by all & the musical score is awesome.
John Jennings
This is not one of my top 10 films of all times, but it is a solid genre piece with some interesting variations and local color.After Katrina, a film about New Orleans has a special interest that adds a certain sauce.If there are any weaknesses, some of Bassinger's line deliveries are a bit weak. Otherwise, superb acting all around. I have always thought Gere was something of a lightweight, but very solid work here.Unlike many films, they get the weapons handling VERY right.I am a bit confused as to why this film has been rated so low on average. I have the video, and watch it about once a year.
Jonathon Dabell
In 1986, when No Mercy was released, two names that would be near the top of any "World's Sexiest Man" and "World's Sexiest Woman" lists would have been Richard Gere and Kim Basinger. In getting these two gorgeous people together, the makers of No Mercy then committed the age-old sin - they forgot to provide them with a decent story! Gere plays Chicago cop Eddie Jillette. Whilst on a case, Eddie's partner Joe (Gary Basaraba) is brutally murdered by French gangster Losado (Jereon Krabbe). Jillette heads down to Losado's New Orleans lair to avenge his partner's death. There, he meets gangster's moll Michel (Kim Basinger), a stunning woman desperate to get away from her sadistic lover but too afraid to do so. She and Jillette end up handcuffed together, hiding out in the dangerous Louisiana swampland from Losado and his heavies. Immediately, you can see that No Mercy is riddled with stale plot devices - cop avenging the death of his friend; hero stealing a lover from the villain; usual fish-out-of-water ideas (this time a Chicago cop working in New Orleans); even the swamp sequence has a whiff of The Defiant Ones and The 39 Steps about it. The film is also excessively grim and nasty, with Krabbe in particular struggling to do anything as a one-dimensional, knife-wielding sadist. The action high-spots, including a climactic shootout in a burning hotel, are quite expensive-looking sequences but, like the rest of the film, are oddly uninteresting and unoriginal.
L. Denis Brown
I would have no mercy on those who perpetrated this ludicrous and totally unrewarding twaddle, which caused me to waste almost two hours I could have far more valuably spent doing almost anything else. I must however show not only mercy but the highest respect for the magnificent efforts made by both Kim Basinger and Richard Gere to wring every drop they could out of the terrible script with which they were faced. In particular I very much respect their long ordeal handcuffed together in the Louisiana swamps (in a poor imitation of Alfred Hitchcock's "39 steps" - he at least knew how to create a movie with real tension). This must have quickly led to very bruised wrists, which would have made the film extremely painful for them to make. Solely on the strength of their performances, I will rate the film at 2/10. In all other respects this is a perfect example of one of the types of film from which I normally try to steer well clear.
