Merchants of War

My review was written in September 1990 after watching the movie on Vidmark video cassette.

"Merchants of War" is a cornball mercenaries' adventure made in South Africa. Feature had a brief theatrical run via Triax in January 1989 ahead of current home video availability from Vidmark.

Arthur Brauner, who was much better in the subsequent South African-lensed film "American Eagle", toplines as anex-Vietnam warrior and ex-CIA operative assigned to a photo reconnaissance mission in Angola. Supposedly an Arab faction from the Middle East is in the former Portuguese colony setting up a training camp to export terrorism to Ireland and elsewhere.

Brauner is captured by rebels and his buddy Jesse Vint is supposedly killed. Naturally, the American government denies any knowledge of the abortive mission.

What follows is a very unconvincing series of events, with Brauner escaping and organizing a team of old buddies to to in and rescue Vint, with several phony twists and turns.

Acting booby prize goes to Adrian Waldron as an evil Arab named Musa, a caricature that is particularly annoying. Brauner's macho posturing is misjudged.

This movie is just a rip off of every action film of the 80's. It has very little plot, bad guys who hate America, and the rest is all shooting. Everything about it is just incredibly 80's, from the music to plot to everything else. Its good for a laugh and a look at a different time for action films, but not a good film itself. If you want to watch a B-level 80's action movie that doesn't care about being anything else than you might get a kick out of Merchants of War. But don't count on it.