Renegades (2 out of 5 stars).
Renegades is a dull action thriller that could have been so much better as a war heist film about a group of Navy seals trying to reclaim gold that the Nazi's stole and buried it underneath a small town that is now a lake. Sadly, the film misses the opportunity to be an exciting fun action thriller. We are left with a movie that has tedious characters, boring direction, and terrible visual effects.
The plot begins with Nazi's stealing tons of gold from a village and had the village flooded with the gold locked in a vault. Now in 1995, a team of Navy seals led by Matt (Sullivan Stapleton) gather Intel by Lara (Sylvia Hoeks) that the gold is buried underneath the lake. After their mission was compromised. Matt and his team are put on leave. They decide to plan and reclaim the missing gold. With the SAS hot on Matt and his teams trail.
It was an interesting plot that does set up for a fun action packed thriller. The direction fails to even built any worthwhile action. The opening sequence with Matt and his team escaping after their mission was compromised was the only exciting scene there is. As they are driving their tank through the city with the bad guys after them. Even though, there were some bad visual effects. After that, the film drops the excitement and turns into a dull direction. Lara helps the team out by scouting and planning the heist. Nothing exciting happens throughout the second act of the movie. With Matt's commander Admiral J. Levin (J.K. Simmons) getting on their case for being military screw-ups. J. K. Simmons was the best thing about the movie. He delivers some fun laughs. Otherwise, the movie is boring. Even during the climax that spends most of the time underwater was a boring sequence. They travel to the flooded village and trying to break the gold out of the vault. With the SAS troops dropping bombs in the lake. And the scene gets confusing on what is going on underwater.
Overall, Renegades is a bad film. Nothing exciting happens. It has the concept of top notch action but fails in excitement. The characters are boring and forgettable. The script lacks development on the characters. The visual effects are terrible. And the direction is a tedious heist film. J.K. Simmons may have some moments to bring laughs but you will be falling asleep through the rest.
