Judged by Mercy Sentenced to Tacos and Donuts

This weekend, Chris and I decided to switch it up and did Regal LA Live, which puts you right in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. Doing the movie there meant we had a different set of food options than we usually do which I'm about.

The movie was Mercy. It stars Chris Pratt, alongside Rebecca Ferguson, who plays the AI judge, Judge Maddox. The setup is a near-future Los Angeles in 2029, where crime has gotten so bad that the city implements an AI-run court system called Mercy. Since its rollout, crime is supposedly down 68%, and there have only been 18 trials — all 18 ending in execution. That’s established right at the beginning.

Chris Pratt’s character becomes defendant number 19. He’s on trial for the murder of his wife and has 90 minutes to prove his innocence before the system automatically executes him. The entire movie takes place inside that window, and there’s an actual timer running throughout, which gives the movie a constant sense of pressure. It reminded me a lot of Flight Risk — not because of the plot, but because you’re always aware of where you are in the movie and how much time is left.

A lot of Mercy is shot through different types of cameras, which keeps things visually interesting. Overall, if I’m grading it on the Dan(ny)-O-Meter, it lands around a 5 out of 10. Solidly middle-of-the-road. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it, and I’d be perfectly happy watching it on streaming instead of going out of my way to see it in a theater. It’s very much an action, thrills, light sci-fi kind of movie.

One thing I really appreciated was how grounded the future felt. Because the movie is set in 2029, the sci-fi elements never felt wildly out there. The AI felt especially believable — very much in line with how AI and LLMs behave today, just pushed forward a few years. It didn’t feel like fantasy AI; it felt like a realistic version of where we could actually be in three to five years. The same goes for the technology and vehicles used by the police, which felt like natural evolutions of what already exists rather than exaggerated future concepts.

My only real gripe was how the police were portrayed during the chase scenes. In those moments, they came off as extremely disorganized and reckless, which doesn’t line up with LAPD at all. Outside of the chases, everything else about the police felt pretty spot-on, which is why those scenes stood out as forced and unnecessary. That said, there is a huge twist at the end that’s solid for those of you who have a thing about predicting movies, formulas, and where stories are supposed to go.

After the movie, I was craving pizza, but we’ve been doing pizza a lot lately, so I threw out a few other options. We landed on Trejo’s Cantina. I’ve been to Trejo’s Tacos plenty of times, along with Trejo’s Coffee & Donuts, so it felt overdue. Shout out Danny Trejo.

I ordered the steak asada and Trejo’s favorite — the pineapple carnitas — and both were excellent. No complaints there.

We had talked about hitting an ice-cream-cone donut place off Hollywood Boulevard, but parking and traffic made that a no-go. Instead, we went somewhere reliable and ended up at Kettle Glazed, off Franklin. They’re solid every time. I grabbed two donuts: a croissant donut that I ate there, filled with their cream-style filling, and a s’mores donut for later. A clean ending to a solid weekend run.