American Renegades

The plot and characters have promise, with a killer location for the movie, but they are so far wide of the mark in so many aspects it's almost disappointing. The plot twists are formulaic and obvious, the dialogue cheesy and typically over the top American bravado.

If they had a military technical advisor, he should be put in front of a firing squad and shot. Many aspects of the film are woefully inaccurate and even downright stupid. 2 NATO elite SF Units going head to head is absolutely laughable, never mind the Yanks walking through unscathed as if they were facing wet behind the ears recruits!

Pilots just head off on a jolly into enemy airspace getting involved in air to air combat with no air support, flight auth or follow up.

The helo carrying the cargo at the end couldn't even get remotely close to lifting that sort of weight. I could go on but you get the drift. Not everything has to be 100% realism, but it has to be at least close/believeable

Sullivan Stapleton plays Sullivan Stapleton again in this movie. I actually like him as an action hero, but he is basically playing Damien Scott/Kurt Weller in this.

Despite all that, it does try to harp back to the 80's and 90's type of action movies, there are some lovely locations and some good action sequences, although not nearly enough for an action movie if am honest. It starts with a bang and ends with a whimper!

Simmons provides some comedic relief, but again he plays the same character we all expect him to be with nothing outdide of what's expected of him.

It's not the worst film you'll ever see and is a bit of mindless fun if you need some time off with your brain in neural, but I doubt you would ever revisit it.

JK Simmon's had the best lines, but this was a feel good action movie with a good ending.

Renegades (2 out of 5 stars).

Renegades is a dull action thriller that could have been so much better as a war heist film about a group of Navy seals trying to reclaim gold that the Nazi's stole and buried it underneath a small town that is now a lake. Sadly, the film misses the opportunity to be an exciting fun action thriller. We are left with a movie that has tedious characters, boring direction, and terrible visual effects.

The plot begins with Nazi's stealing tons of gold from a village and had the village flooded with the gold locked in a vault. Now in 1995, a team of Navy seals led by Matt (Sullivan Stapleton) gather Intel by Lara (Sylvia Hoeks) that the gold is buried underneath the lake. After their mission was compromised. Matt and his team are put on leave. They decide to plan and reclaim the missing gold. With the SAS hot on Matt and his teams trail.

It was an interesting plot that does set up for a fun action packed thriller. The direction fails to even built any worthwhile action. The opening sequence with Matt and his team escaping after their mission was compromised was the only exciting scene there is. As they are driving their tank through the city with the bad guys after them. Even though, there were some bad visual effects. After that, the film drops the excitement and turns into a dull direction. Lara helps the team out by scouting and planning the heist. Nothing exciting happens throughout the second act of the movie. With Matt's commander Admiral J. Levin (J.K. Simmons) getting on their case for being military screw-ups. J. K. Simmons was the best thing about the movie. He delivers some fun laughs. Otherwise, the movie is boring. Even during the climax that spends most of the time underwater was a boring sequence. They travel to the flooded village and trying to break the gold out of the vault. With the SAS troops dropping bombs in the lake. And the scene gets confusing on what is going on underwater.

Overall, Renegades is a bad film. Nothing exciting happens. It has the concept of top notch action but fails in excitement. The characters are boring and forgettable. The script lacks development on the characters. The visual effects are terrible. And the direction is a tedious heist film. J.K. Simmons may have some moments to bring laughs but you will be falling asleep through the rest.

A team of Navy SEALs discover an underwater treasure in a Bosnian lake. And then they will go for it. The actors are all unknown, except J.K. Simmons as their boss and Ewen Bremner, atypically not really there to provide the comic relief. The latter is the responsibility of Simmons, and as in every role, ever, he's great at it, with his sarcasm and dry wits and all. Amazingly, at the moment of writing this in the early morning of September the 6th, there is no single critic review of „Renegades" on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic, and the IMDb user score 5.6 out of 10 doesn't seem to promising either. Even the image selection published thus far is shitty. Let me be the bearer of good news, then: „Renegades" is not some bullcrap deserving to be forgotten right after premiere. It is a very OK action adventure which I happened to enjoy from the beginning to the end. The action is fine, the story is fine and the cast of nobodies is cool also. Simmons, of course, steals the show but it would be difficult for anybody to wrestle with this cinematic magnetic force of a bald old man. "Renegades" is smart enough to not take itself too seriously so the story and the characters won't get boring. But it takes seriously the punching and shooting part, evoking the nostalgic atmosphere of old war (or maybe 1980's action) movies where the good guys always hit the mark and look good doing so. Luc Besson, one of the writers and producers, has been known for his „eurotrash" approach to action movies where the realism is out of the window and dirty fun factor is up to eleven. Well, surprisingly, this one's not trashy but rather a solid little actioneer that you could bring home to show to your parents, or something. The characters and their relationships are surprisingly subtle too, not a single sex bomb Eastern European chick on sight! The men are not complicated, mostly used as a means to move the story along, but they feel real enough to root for them. Oh, and the settings look beautifully pictoresque, especially the lake hiding the treasure. And it should, considering that it was shot in Croatia and Malta, among others. If one is to try to find the faults with the movie, the underwater part could have been shorter, maybe. It's not the most gripping section because of the impaired visibility and freedom of movement (due to it being underwater) which slows the usual high-octane action down. Interestingly, Steven Quale has co-directed the underwater documentary „Aliens of the Deep" (2005) alongside the great James Cameron. His other works are more mundane, including 2014's „Into the Storm" and, er, „Final Destination 5". „Renegades" is well done in every major aspect, a polished and solid action movie totally worthy of your time. Well, my time at least. A hefty slice of competence porn of manly men doing the hard work no on else can and not counting bullets doing so cuz doing the right thing justifies the means!

This flick is not a war movie or a bond thriller, rather a mix of different genres with a really good story and characters. Defently worth the money.