Renegades

I love London gangster revenge movies so I was looking forward to this one as it has some stellar cast members. Unfortunately it also has some bad actors and some poor writing. One of the worst cast members is married to the writer. Go figure.

Ian Ogilvy is, as always, a delight. The underrated Paul Barber is superb and Billy Murray does what he does best. So nice to see Lee Majors on screen again. However, Stephanie Beacham is far too old to be playing a serving senior police officer and looks as if she is on life support. Sothcott is hopelessly miscast as a Detective Inspector. She can't act and looks like a victim of a botched Botox procedure. And it's all a bit confused. She carries a gun but clearly nobody showed her how to use it and why would a DI in London be carrying a gun on a routine enquiry anyway.

The writing is clichéd and some of the dialogue is pathetic. I felt sorry for the actors who had to deliver it but hopefully they all had a nice pay day.

And that leaves Patsy Kensit. She has a strange role that tries to pull it all together and give the story meaning but she doesn't pull it off. The blurb say 4 old SAS soldiers get together but the lead goodies clearly says he was in the Royal Anglian and wears their beret. Such inaccuracy in the trailer info says it all.

Very disappointed.

Really, all the marks I give for this are based around the fact it contains some people that I've always liked. Ian Ogilvy, Lee Majors, Danny Trejo, Paul Barber, etc. And in essence, I have seen a lot worse films, but if you're expecting too much, you're in for disappointment. The plot is net curtain thin, the b part actors and henchmen are really pretty awful and the editing and dialog are pretty poor at times. Also, the lady who played the investigating police officer called Moore was really awful, plus she looked like maybe she was made up to look really odd, maybe it was the intention of the film as I can't imagine anyone would choose to have things done to make them look like that on purpose.

However, in the end, it provided a basic level of entertainment and there was a element of fun, so if you're caught short for something to watch, there are worse things out there........probably....... somewhere..........with a bit of a search.

Yeah, it's bloody awful, on so many levels.

Nick Moran was kinda ok, overall but still 5/10 level, due to the script/plot.

Every dialog was like a knife into my heart - you could not feel more like... you know what - I don't have the vocabulary to describe how cliche every little bit of it was.

I understand some fandom for B movies, this is not B for me, C/D at best.

YET (surprisingly!) I gave it 2/10 and not 1/10 simply because I watched all of ity, still, somehow, wanting to see how it ends and the production was ok-ish, to some extent.

I lost respect to any actors involved though and will never, ever understand that atrocity of the police woman - where the hell did they find her? She could not possibly have been accepted to the police force with that duck-bill of lips. That was so ugly and unreal, I had to look away from the screen in all scenes she was in, otherwise I'd have had bad nightmares.

Yet again, just because of her and incredibly awful speaking parts/cliched dialogues for all characters, I want to show it to people, to have a drunken night in to piss ourselves with laughter. This alone deserves an extra point, so 2/10 it is!

Bloody hell, that image of her (police officer) is =wedged into my brain now and it is very hard to get rid of!

If you've nothing better to be doing & want to watch something that won't tax your brain, this is watchable.

The dialogue is pretty bad, there are some lines that make you cringe.

The acting is so-so. In the style of a made-for-tv movie.

The characters aren't very good. The bad guys are pulled straight from the pages of school of economy bad-guys. Other characters don't appear to have had much thought in how they're going to present on screen. The cops for a start are just plain terrible!

I watched this with a wink wink as to how bad it was going to be. It's not dire, but it's only just about Good. Ish....

Right, well I have to say that I wasn't really expecting a whole lot from the 2022 action crime thriller "Renegades" as I sat down to watch it. But I figured that with the rather interesting cast ensemble that was in the movie, then there might actually be a chance that this could turn out as a good movie.

And I have to say that writers Tom Jolliffe and Jonathan Sothcott definitely were on to something here with the script that they had put together for director Daniel Zirilli to bring to the screen. But it was just a shame that director Daniel Zirilli botched the opportunity that was readily served at his disposal.

The storyline had some good aspects to it, but the movie felt clumsy and sluggish. It was partly an insanely wooden, rigid and awkward dialogue that was shunting the movie's momentum. Well, that and also the fact that the action sequences didn't really feel particularly dynamic and fluid.

I was especially taken aback with the delivery of the dialogue and the general lack of enthusiasm, commitment and commitment from the cast in general. It just took away so much from the movie. It was as if the actors themselves didn't buy into the subpar script they had to work with.

"Renegades" definitely had a great cast ensemble, with the likes of Lee Majors, Michael Paré, Louis Mandylor, Nick Moran, Tom Lister Jr., Ian Ogilvy and Danny Trejo on the cast list. Of all these talents, it felt like only Lee Majors and Louis Mandylor were actively putting in an effort into their characters and trying to make something of the movie. Personally I don't understand why they opt to put the surgically altered and silicone enhanced performers in movies, and there was one such individual in this movie here, and the alterations done to her face just ruined every scene that she was in, because it was so difficult to take her serious as an officer of the police force.

The action sequences in the movie weren't particularly exciting. And an action crime thriller should be packed with thrilling and adrenaline-packed action sequences. Sadly such things were not present in "Renegades". Sure, there were some action sequences, but they were pretty much ruined by some dubious special effects for the shots from weapon, explosions and such.

For an action crime thriller then "Renegades" was a flaccid addition to the genre. The movie brought nothing new to the genre, nor was it particularly outstanding or thrilling. So it was a rather bland and mediocre viewing experience to sit through. I did manage to sit through the entire movie, but believe you me when I say that I am never returning to watch "Renegades" a second time.

My rating of director Daniel Zirilli's 2022 action crime thriller "Renegades" lands on a three out of ten stars.