Renegades - Commando d'assalto

A group of navy seals/commandos decide to help retrieve a cargo of Nazi gold said to be hidden under water. The acting is unconvincing and fake. A few half decent action sequences plus some scenic views cannot save this dud of a picture. This movie lacks sufficient excitement, does not engage the viewer and has no charismatic characters:

4/10.

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.

Completely predictable, Navy seal team are the strongest, no one can stop them. They avoided every bullet, which is impossible in reality but only possible in American cinematography ;)

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.

Its clear this isn't your AAA big money Tom Cruise Action movie but that hardly detracts from the overall enjoyment from the movie in fact the day of the Hollywood A Lister headlining movies seems to be coming to an end.

The movie itself is well directed and the cast are all good with a couple of stand out performances from screen veterans.

Watching the film I was reminded very much of the action adventure novels I used to read as a kid and into my late teens. It had that vibe all throughout the film and it was just an enjoyable movie to watch from start to finish. There was some funny moments in it and there was some romance and sprinkled throughout was action,danger and bravado.

If you are expecting an out and out action movie then you may well be dissapointed as while there is action, explosions and fighting in the movie they certainly do not dominate it.

I think the pacing may be little off in parts and a tighter budget restricts the amount of 'danger' they can add to the scenes but all in all its a very enjoyable movie with a feel good factor throughout.