Long Gone Heroes

So ridiculously formulaic. Special forces go in. Get into trouble. An unarmed fist fight which the hero wins. All ends well.

No wonder Americans think that their military is the best in the world.

Then there's the robotic script, wooden acting and the ending, the very definition implausibility.

Nonsense on film.

What drew me to the film was seeing well known actor Mekhi Phifer in a scene with the venerated Andy Garcia. It's safe to say that both their screen times were very inadequate as their character development was shown poorly. Frank Grillo as the main protagonist was decent in his role and undoubtedly took the reigns the entire way. The dialogue was slowly dragging in most scenes and the action took too long to develop even though it was okay, very poor directing on both regards. I'm quite glad I didn't buy it, I strongly suggest that the viewer rent it instead, they'll be the better for it. This could've been way better than what it is. I'm only giving it 3 stars because of three things; Frank Grillo, the excellent shots that were taken throughout the film, and the action.

(2024) Long Gone Heroes ACTION THRILLER

Co-written and directed by John Swab that has California senator, Olivia Peterson (Melissa Leo) contacting former special ops, Gunner (Frank Grillo) to come out of retirement to save her daughter and his niece, Julia (Eden Brolin) who happens to be a humanitarian worker/ reporter. He then puts together a team sending West (Beau Knapp) and Matty (George Carroll) to fetch a tech guy named David (Josh Hutcherson). Together they would then travel to South America as according to their intel she was being held captive by some dug cartels. But by the time they showed up, the entire cartel family were already been killed with an old friend, Guapo (Juan Pablo Raba) sitting down eating who eventually becomes a part of Gunner's special ops group. It was later revealed she has been kidnapped again by a militia group led by Roman (Andy Garcia) with his right hand man, Moreau (Mekhi Phifer).

In terms of the action and the tone, while I was watching this, reminded me of two movies that I thought are way more superior than this one- one is "Blackhawk Down" and the one fight scene reminded me of "Commando". One of the inconsistencies about this movie is the fact that Gunner and his special ops had opportunities taking a hummer or two and instead decide to run through the streets. That did not even make any since one of those vehicles even had a built in machine gun.

What was the point of this movie? It's something that's been done hundreds of times and all much better. The directing and editing were terrible, and it took two writers to come up with every predictable cliche and a lackluster story that made the dragged poorly paced two hour runtime feel much longer. Most of the action scenes were poorly filmed and choreographed.

The casting was great, although some actors needed better cast direction, and Frank Grillo as usual carried this movie. He's an underrated actor who deserves bigger and better roles. And although casting Andy Garcia may be a draw to see this movie, his max 5 min screen time didn't add any value to the movie, and it felt like he just called his lines in. It's a generous 4/10 all going to Grillo and the decent cinematography and location sets.

Pretty nonsense movie with alot of action and it still not appeals me alot. I like warmovies and action, but this was just too much for me. It was not so great at all, it misses something like a good story. It feeling forced and no brainmovie. It was not a great movie, sorry Viaplay, but i dont like this.