The Corner Penthouse

No Mercy arrives on Blu-ray as part of Mill Creek Entertainment's Retro VHS Style series, with packaging designed to look like the VHS videocassettes of the 1980s and 1990s. Several other titles in the series have already been reviewed on The Corner Penthouse, and I'm always excited when Mill Creek announces more. It's fun to see if it's a title I used to own on VHS, or one whose trailer I remember seeing at the start of some other VHS tape, or even some obscure movie I've never heard of before.


No Mercy (1986) is the story of Eddie Jillette (Richard Gere), a tough, uncompromising cop whose vow to avenge his partner's death draws him into a torrid affair with the only witness, the murderer's girlfriend. The sultry Cajun beauty, Michel (Kim Basinger), is caught in the war between Jillette and vicious crime lord, Losado (Jeroen Krabbe), the man who possesses her. Jillette's vendetta takes him from the streets of Chicago to the violent underworld of New Orleans, where he abducts Michel to flush out Losado. He escapes into the treacherous bayou with his unwilling captive, but as their pursuers close in and the danger mounts, so does their lust for each other. Out of time and out of luck, Jillette confronts Losado in an explosive climax where there is...NO MERCY.


Richard Gere and Kim Basinger have great chemistry in this otherwise by-the-book noir-ish action thriller. The acting and the characters carry the film, with Ghostbusters jerk William Atherton in a small (but pivotal) role as rich jerk Allan Deveneux. Yes, Atherton's stock and trade in the 1980s was playing jerks. See also, Die Hard. The action and romance scenes are fine, as expected. The only real issue is with the story, namely how cliched it is. I mean, how many times have we seen the whole "cop wants revenge on his dead partner's killer" cliche? Almost everything in the movie happens as a a result of Michel (pronounced like "Michelle"), yet she might be one of the most ungrateful and annoying movie characters I've ever seen. She's been Losado's "kept woman", which is essentially a slave, so you'd think she'd be happy when Jillette abducts her; yet she fights him the whole time. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that the final fight gets down to Jillette and Losado, while Michel stands there watching and screaming as they fight each other. Why does she have to be such a damsel in distress? It would have been very easy for her to grab something and whack Losado in the head while he was busy fighting with Jillette. She does nothing to help the man who's trying to save her.


No Mercy is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:47:59. On the audio side, there is only an English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio track. Subtitles are available in English only. As is the case with most Mill Creek Entertainment releases, there are no special features - just like the original videocassette!


The real "bonus feature" here is the vintage-looking VHS-inspired slipsleeve, with faux wear and tear, and fake "rental stickers" on it, while giving the appearance of a videocassette being pulled out from the right side (though the original VHS may have been in a bottom-loading box), complete with tape label side on the right spine. Here's a complete look at this special slipsleeve. Click on it to get a better look. (NOTE: As you can see, Mill Creek mistakenly left off the "tape label" on the right spine, thus leaving it all black.)


The front artwork is based on a combination of the original U.S. and Australian VHS box art, as seen below. The back of the slipsleeve uses some of the same photos as the VHS, but in a different orientation.


The case artwork underneath is of a modern style, which means that the VHS-style slipsleeve may only be available for a limited time. In the photo below, the slipsleeve cover is on the left and the case artwork underneath is on the right.


If you're not already aware of Mill Creek Entertainment, they are a budget company, which results in their products having a lower cost than the big studios. Right now, No Mercy is listed on Amazon for less than $10.


The "Retro VHS Style" series includes the following Blu-ray releases, which are being listed in chronological movie order, and not the order they are being released onto Blu-ray. Some titles below may not have been released yet.



Images used come from the Internet Movie Database gallery of the film. The Blu-ray has been provided by Mill Creek Entertainment for review on this site.