RENEGADES (2017)

Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: Steven Quale
Cast: Sullivan Stapleton, J.K. Simmons, Clemans Schick, Ewen Bremner
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 29 March 2018

Synopsis: RENEGADES is about a team of Navy SEALs on assignment in war-torn Europe who discover a treasure of gold at the bottom of a lake -- rumored to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In an effort to help the locals, they go rogue and engineer a heist to retrieve the gold and return it to its rightful owners. But in a deadly turn of events, they are detected by the enemy and left with only 10 hours to carry out their mission.

Movie Review:

What exactly did co-writer and producer Luc Besson intend with ‘Renegades’? Did he intend it as a throwback to the macho, mindless mayhem of ‘The A-Team’ or ‘The Dirty Dozen’? Or did he intend it as satire like David O’Russell’s ‘Three Kings’? Or what about a combination of the two with some Danny Ocean heist action thrown in? Either way, this long-delayed movie from his troubled Europacorp company is dull, tedious and even frustrating, never coming off quite as amusing, clever or thrilling enough to lift you from its own monotony.

As with most Besson-scripted actioners, this one has a straightforward premise at its core: a team of US Navy Seals embarking on a rogue mission to retrieve US$300 million worth of Nazi gold at the bottom of a Bosnian lake, after being tipped off by a beautiful local about the fortune. Whereas the Seals’ want the loot to line their pockets, Lara (Sylvia Hoeks) is hoping that it will help rebuild her community, so they decide on a 50/50 split of those bullion bars. The challenge is twofold – one, to raise all that gold from the bottom of the lake without their commanding officer (J.K. Simmons) discovering what they are up to; and two, evading the Serbian forces whom they had offended early on when they had kidnapped their leader from right under their noses to face trial for crimes of war.

That daring kidnap in broad daylight is how we are introduced to this band of brothers, and fortunately as well as unfortunately sets a high bar for the film that it struggles – and eventually never manages to – sustain, let alone surpass. Comprising a clever double-cross op that culminates in our boys commandeering a tank down the streets of Yugoslavia before driving it off a bridge, that single elaborate sequence is undoubtedly the highlight of the whole movie. Aside from a couple of scenes with Simmons’ class-A scowling act, the first hour slows to an utter crawl trying to set up how our heroes come to learn and plan their underwater operation. As noble as the intention may be to emphasise the nobility of these men in wanting to do something good for the local people, veteran special effects supervisor-turned-director Steven Quale sucks out what fun and silliness the opening had promised, leaving a dull middle-act that will leave you bored.

Worse still, the movie never quite recovers from its self-imposed monotony, and not even a technically impressive third act staged almost entirely underwater lifts the pulse of this actioner anywhere near where it needs to be. It doesn’t help that for budgetary reasons or otherwise, our heroes under the water are conveniently saved from their Serbian enemies on the surface by some “timely” intervention that frankly just douses what excitement the preceding half-hour had built. Indeed, it is almost inevitable that one is left annoyed by that anti-climax of an ending, especially given how much of your patience the languidly-paced 105-minute movie implores.

We could criticise the (lack thereof) character development in the movie, which hardly differentiates one cocksure commando from the other, but really that’s hardly the point. A B-grade actioner like this is all about the bullets, bombs and bombast, but even on that rudimentary level, ‘Renegades’ disappoints by being hardly exciting and barely fun. There’s no guilty pleasure to be found here, not for action fans or those of such gung-ho military thrillers; and if it’s worth anything, all it offers is reason why it has been sitting on the Europacorp shelves for so long. That said, it might as well have remained there, or at the bottom of its own fictional lake, for this team of renegades is better off decommissioned for good.

Movie Rating:

(Unless you're dying to find out just why this military heist thriller has been sitting on the shelves for a good two years, you're better off finding your guilty B-movie pleasure somewhere else)

Review by Gabriel Chong