American Renegades (2017)

A team of Navy SEALs discover an underwater treasure in a Bosnian lake.

Director:

Steven Quale

Writers:

Richard Wenk, Luc Besson

Stars:

J.K. Simmons, Sullivan Stapleton, Charlie Bewley

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
J.K. Simmons	...	Levin
Sullivan Stapleton	...	Matt Barnes
Charlie Bewley	...	Stanton Baker
Sylvia Hoeks	...	Lara Simic
Joshua Henry	...	Ben Moran
Diarmaid Murtagh	...	Kurt Duffy
Dimitri Leonidas	...	Jack Porter
Clemens Schick	...	Petrovic
Ewen Bremner	...	Jim Rainey
Peter Davor	...	General Milic
Mahamadou Coulibaly	...	Detroit Turner
Alain Blazevic	...	Boris
Karim Cherif	...	Milenko
Denis Brizic	...	Kurjak
Marko Cindric	...	Peter The Bartender

Storyline

A team of Navy SEALs discover an underwater treasure in a Bosnian lake.

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Plot Keywords:

chase | fistfight | fight | brawl | beating | 

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Taglines:

5 Navy SEALs. $300 million in gold. 1 incredible mission.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Thriller | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence, brief sexuality and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Site Official Site [Japan]

Country:

France Belgium Germany USA

Language:

English Croatian German Serbian

Release Date:

25 December 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Lake

Filming Locations:

Karlovac, Croatia

Box Office

Budget:

€66,190,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Belga Productions, CB Films, Canal+

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After directing Strike Back star Richard Armitage in Into the Storm, Quale directs another Strike Back protagonist in Sullivan Stapleton

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Goofs

Radio Comms:

Several times during Radio comms when trying to organise the extraction at the start of the film instead of using a proper Callsign the British Special Forces are simply assigned the call sign "22 SAS".

This would NEVER happen in reality, nor would it be broadcast over Radio Comms as it would give away the fact the world's Elite Special Forces Unit (22nd Special Air Service Regiment) are operating in the area.

Call Signs are never assigned in this manner naming a unit specifically.

Airing a Special Forces Unit name over comms in such a manner would be horrendous trade craft. Certainly not something one would expect from a Navy SEAL team.

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Connections

Referenced in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Claire Danes/J.K. Simmons/Sampha (2017)

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Soundtracks

The Keys
written by Talisco

User Reviews

Surprise: action adventure written by Luc Besson which is not camp or trashy!

A team of Navy SEALs discover an underwater treasure in a Bosnian lake. And then they will go for it. The actors are all unknown, except J.K. Simmons as their boss and Ewen Bremner, atypically not really there to provide the comic relief. The latter is the responsibility of Simmons, and as in every role, ever, he's great at it, with his sarcasm and dry wits and all. Amazingly, at the moment of writing this in the early morning of September the 6th, there is no single critic review of „Renegades" on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic, and the IMDb user score 5.6 out of 10 doesn't seem to promising either. Even the image selection published thus far is shitty. Let me be the bearer of good news, then: „Renegades" is not some bullcrap deserving to be forgotten right after premiere. It is a very OK action adventure which I happened to enjoy from the beginning to the end. The action is fine, the story is fine and the cast of nobodies is cool also. Simmons, of course, steals the show but it would be difficult for anybody to wrestle with this cinematic magnetic force of a bald old man. "Renegades" is smart enough to not take itself too seriously so the story and the characters won't get boring. But it takes seriously the punching and shooting part, evoking the nostalgic atmosphere of old war (or maybe 1980's action) movies where the good guys always hit the mark and look good doing so. Luc Besson, one of the writers and producers, has been known for his „eurotrash" approach to action movies where the realism is out of the window and dirty fun factor is up to eleven. Well, surprisingly, this one's not trashy but rather a solid little actioneer that you could bring home to show to your parents, or something. The characters and their relationships are surprisingly subtle too, not a single sex bomb Eastern European chick on sight! The men are not complicated, mostly used as a means to move the story along, but they feel real enough to root for them. Oh, and the settings look beautifully pictoresque, especially the lake hiding the treasure. And it should, considering that it was shot in Croatia and Malta, among others. If one is to try to find the faults with the movie, the underwater part could have been shorter, maybe. It's not the most gripping section because of the impaired visibility and freedom of movement (due to it being underwater) which slows the usual high-octane action down. Interestingly, Steven Quale has co-directed the underwater documentary „Aliens of the Deep" (2005) alongside the great James Cameron. His other works are more mundane, including 2014's „Into the Storm" and, er, „Final Destination 5". „Renegades" is well done in every major aspect, a polished and solid action movie totally worthy of your time. Well, my time at least. A hefty slice of competence porn of manly men doing the hard work no on else can and not counting bullets doing so cuz doing the right thing justifies the means!