Filmmakers revisit two different American military entanglements in American Renegades, a little-seen heist-driven action-adventure from 2017 that currently finds itself lodged in the Netflix Top 10. In this picture, a group of Navy SEALs deployed to Sarajevo during the mid-’90s Bosnian War discover the potential existence of hidden nazi gold. During some downtime, they decide to retrieve the gold, which they figure they can use to help the Bosnian locals (and, sure, also themselves). So is this a heist for the ages, or the cinematic equivalent of a smash-and-grab operation?
The Gist: A real (and somewhat baffling) cross-cultural production, American Renegades (international title: just Renegades) is a movie about American Navy SEALs from the EuropaCorp production company, home base of French weirdo Luc Besson, who also co-wrote the movie with old-guy-action-movie specialist Richard Wenk (the Equalizer film series, among others). Matt Barnes (Sullivan Stapleton), Stanton Baker (Charlie Bewley), Ben Moran (Joshua Henry), and some other nondescript guys are on a team deployed to Sarajevo during the Bosnian War of the mid-90s, where during some post-mission downtime they discover, via Stanton’s local girlfriend Lara (Sylvia Hoeks), that there may be nazi gold hidden at the bottom of an abandoned city, submerged by a vengeful dam destruction during World War II. With bad guys after the gold as well, the team decides to attempt to retrieve it from the underwater vault and distribute it to the Bosnian locals affected by the war (and maybe keep some shares for themselves). So we have a French-written, largely Europe-financed movie about American soldiers in Sarajevo – which was, for reasons unknown, never distributed theatrically in the U.S. (Readied for 2017, it came to DVD here in 2019.)
What Will It Remind You Of?: The ‘90s-set David O. Russell dramedy Three Kings, if you can recognize Three Kings stripped of its irreverence, satire, nuance, style, and memorable characters.
Performance Worth Watching: Honestly, the performances are a big part of the problem with American Renegades. The heist crew is so blandly hoo-rah and square-jawed that a team of heist-movie (or platoon-picture) stereotypes would have been preferable. In this context, the 10 minutes of J.K. Simmons reviving his ornery J. Jonah Jameson routine is the liveliest acting in the movie, even though it’s full of cheesy tough-commander cliches. It’s also nice to see Trainspotting’s Ewen Bremner in a small part as a helicopter pilot.
Sex and Skin: Lara and Stanton tastefully, semi-nakedly get it on.
Memorable Dialogue: Oh, my no. Screenwriters Wenk and Besson don’t trade in memorable dialogue. There’s scarcely a line in here that goes beyond functional delivery of exposition and dull character traits.
Our Take: There’s nothing overtly incompetent about American Renegades. The director, Steve Quale, directed second-unit for James Cameron on two of the biggest movies of all time, and also made Final Destination 5; not the best of that series, but not the worst, either. He brings slickness to this material, and occasional fun flourishes like a shot where the (presumably virtual) camera is affixed to a bunch of heist gear as it’s ejected from a military plane and parachuted down into the waters below. The cross-breeding of a military action movie and a complicated heist is also appealing, with plenty of genre hallmarks (the last-minute rescheduling, the technical innovation that emerges when least expected, etc.), and the underwater-city component is cool, too. So why does American Renegades feel so insubstantial? Some of it comes down to the barely-there characterizations of its interchangeable soldiers, who are too honorable to generate much conflict. But that’s just a symptom of the movie’s flavorless rah-rah energy, which can’t resist solving some of its problems with plain old military might and performs a bunch of cowardly waffling over whether the crew is truly in this for any level of personal gain. Frankly, they don’t seem all that invested in their task, treating it more as a military exercise than a chance to purloin $300 million in gold (or even, you know, save lives; that angle feels more like lip service than a genuine motivation). As a result, the movie feels weirdly indifferent, even when it features elite soldiers stealing gold from an underwater city.
Our Call: Maybe American Renegades is worth watching for heist-movie completists, but unless you’ve burned through every heist classic available, you’re safe to SKIP IT.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.
