While on assignment in war-torn Bosnia, a team of Navy SEALs discovers the existence of a treasure hidden by the Nazis at the bottom of a lake. In an effort to help the locals, the SEALs engineer a covert operation to retrieve the gold and return it to its rightful owners. After a deadly turn of events, the team is detected by the enemy — and left with only ten hours to carry out the mission.
“American Renegades” might be the perfect moniker for some in the US military. They rebel against the Geneva Convention and other bad to the bone acts of war crimes. I feel like maybe 15 or 30 years ago this tone would’ve been better handled or received. When you read the headlines today, the carefree rollicking action of the ’80s and ’90s military movies are not easy to pull off.
The titular Renegades are a ragtag unit of Navy Seals. There’s the handsome gruff leader, the witty token person of color, the big dumb hothead etc. The infamous “Hell Week” training is not easy and I’m definitely impressed with those that pass the grueling and soul-crushing test. In Mexico, I once met a guy who had nearly completed the week only to contract pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. These guys don’t seem like they’ve been through such training, I know they’re actors, but better casting would’ve helped a bit.
J.K. Simmons plays the colonel screaming original lines like “you drove a Soviet Era tank across half of Sarajevo” and misogynistically refers to his subordinates as “ladies.” His rants recall the police captain in the “Lethal Weapon” saga, “Beverly Hills Cop,” or basically any police captain in an action movie. I normally find him charismatic but he feels like he’s phoning it in between Farmer’s insurance commercials. The unit is admonished with three days leave and immediately rewarded with some bottles of Jim Beam. I know if I just risked life and limb that at the least I’d want some Powers Irish whiskey or Bulleit Rye.
The story is set in motion after the unit learns of Nazi Gold buried in a Bosnian lake. I usually enjoy Nazi gold heist movies, ie. “Black Sea,” starring Jude Law and Ben Mendelsohn, but this movie felt uninspired and lazy. The bulk of the film felt like it took place in and around the aforementioned lake, somehow a 90-minute movie felt very long and tedious.
The “American Renegades” cast and production team are generally British which perplexed me since it’s such a heavy-handed pro-American story. I did appreciate seeing Dutch up-and-comer Sylvia Hoeks, recently seen kicking Gosling’s Android ass in “Blade Runner 2049.” As the credits rolled, I noticed it was written and produced by Luc Besson, which makes sense. The accents are pretty awful as well, usually, Brits do a pretty decent American impression. The score is so out of place, especially during a love scene there’s music straight out of a suburban affair story or some timid geriatric cast heist movie. I’m a fan of the action war genre when it can be honest or at least originally entertaining but this movie missed its mark.
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