A savagely panned action thriller starring Marvel actor and Academy Award winnerJ.K. Simmonsis finding success onNetflixalmost a decade after release. Landing in 2017,Renegades, known asAmerican Renegadesin the United States, is partOcean’s Eleven, partExpendables, and all…mauled by critics. But, now that the action outing is on Netflix, fans of the genre have taken the opportunity to discover this tale of a group of Navy SEALs with plans to salvage some Nazi gold from the bottom of a lake while on assignment in a war zone.
Directed by Steven Quale (who helmedFinal Destination 5and was the 2nd unit director on the likes ofTitanicandAvatar) andwritten byTaken’sLuc BessonandThe Equalizer’sRichard Wenk,RenegadesstarsSpider-Man, Spider-Man: No Way Home, andWhiplashstar J.K. Simmons alongside Sullivan Stapleton, Charlie Bewley, Clemens Schick, Diarmaid Murtagh, and is now second in the Netflix top 10 in the U.S., trailing just behindJamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz’sBack in Action. you may check out the official synopsis forRenegadesbelow.
“On assignment in war-torn Europe, Navy SEALs discover gold at the bottom of a lake – a fortune rumored to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Hoping to help the locals, the soldiers go rogue and engineer a plan to recover the treasure and return it to its rightful owners. When the enemy detects the team, the SEALs are suddenly left with only 10 hours to carry out their dangerous mission.”
‘Renegades’ Holds a “Rotten” Score of 11%…but Sometimes an Action B-Movie Is Just What You Need
Despite the action movie talent behind it, and an intriguing plot,Renegadeswas panned upon release. The movie now holds a score of just 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. Meaning that the action thriller is forever cursed with having a big, green splat right alongside it. However, the movie did fare somewhat better with audiences, landing a score of 41% on the Popcornmeter. Hey, it may not be great, but J. K. Simmons taking charge in an action, heist, war movie? What more could you ask for? Simon Abrams ofRogerEbert.comwas sadly left asking for a lot more, and felt that this attempt to turn a high-concept B-movie into something more “slick” unfortunately failed.
“It’s B-movie neophytes trying to sell a slick, but hollow scenario for a high-concept genre hybrid. American Renegades might look good on paper, but it’s pretty tiresome on the screen.”
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Dennis Harvey ofVariety, meanwhile, also took issue with the approach, saying, “Offers a particularly dumb kind of gung-ho Ugly Americanism…” with Ben Kenigsberg ofThe New York Timesadding, ““American Renegades” could use some seasoning to go with its meatheadeness.”
John Nugent ofEmpirecompares the movie to Steven Soderbergh’sacclaimed heist flickand Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham’s action movie team-up, saying, “If Danny Ocean and Barney Ross fromThe Expendableshad a baby, it might look something like this - but should they?” And, finally, Peter Bradshaw ofThe Guardianpraised Simmons' performance, but ultimately likensRenegadesto a TV movie, concluding, “There is a spectacular scene in which someone drives a tank off a bridge, and JK Simmons gives the film some ballast as the guys' scowling commanding officer, but the rest of the time this resembles a TV movie of egregious averageness.”
