Renegades (1989)

Given the sheer number of successful buddy films in the 80s and 90s you might wonder how such a simple formula could be misused? After all, the buddy shtick is simply there to justify a bunch of action sequences and perhaps some snappy dialogue. First the formula for a good buddy picture. Have one guy meet another guy he shouldn't get along with, give them both a bad guy to hate and cue the explosions and car chases! Get it? Just keep it simple, don't try too hard and make sure a bunch of guys end up dead. In Renegades, two guys from disparate backgrounds are drawn together when they must unite to track down a bad guy who has done done them wrong!Bingo! Put some titles at the front and credits at the end and I'm in! The two guys are Buster McHenry (Keifer Sutherland) and Hank Storm (Lou Diamond Phillips) who play an undercover cop and a person of Native American heritage respectively, an Indian for the cheap seats. As you can see above Keifer and Lou (sounds weird with the DP part), fresh of The Lost Boys and La Bamba respectively and Young Guns combined, went into what should be a B-movie and kicked it up a notch. One thing I can say for Keifer is that he always seems to be trying, he won't allow himself to just coast through a film, and I always thought LDP was cool even with his slightly girly hair. Unfortunately after both enjoyed the 80s and early 90s hot streak their careers went in opposite directions, Keifer ultimately landing the well respected and long running 24, and LDP being left with the reality of being little more than a direct to video guy and TV show guest actor. Keeping with the broad stereotypes the bad guys are a faceless Italian-American crime syndicate lead by a charismatic but vicious bloke who looks like a 5% off Johnny Depp, the real JD would have made this the perfect 80s movie, but I think he was still Jump Streeting at this stage. How he caused the respective gentleman grief is not important: aside from motivating them to hunt him down for their own personal reasons, good old fashioned vengeance and a sense of justice among them. It also leads to some solid and in this case, extremely inventive set pieces that push Renegades ahead of several other pretenders from the era. The first car chase after a botched diamond heist into which Buster is inadvertently involved is a doozy, it takes around 12 minutes and seamlessly embroils Hank into the proceedings at the half way point. So once the boys band together to further unite them against a common foe events transpire that they are being hunted by both the Mafia crime family and the cops, meaning they must rely solely on each other, for a brief time the film also introduces a young woman, for what reason I am unsure, as she is not a love interest as much as someone who is in a few scenes before being shot. I'll leave it at this: There is a reason Jami Gertz is not on the cover of the DVD. Some of the best scenes emanate from the fact that Buster wants to work alone, and that Hank needs him as he is not a local and doesn't have the contacts Buster has. So the dynamic is that Buster is continually trying to ditch Hank, who is always trying to either stop this from happening or rejoining with Buster after being ditched. In short everyone how is not on the poster dies at some point in this film, the goodies die to add importance and gravitas to the film, and build the need for vengeance, the bad guys because bad guys deserve to die and because someone has to win. As you can see that is a lot of people, in true buddy tradition the guys that deserve it more die in a more graphic and painful manner. This is called Movie-Karma. One last point: There are many times in this film where there is gunfire or the need for police intervention, but the police response times in Renegades are simply off the charts. In more than three occasions, if my memory serves they are on the scene less than a minute after the first shots are fired. In the case of the finale no sooner has the last shot rung out and the required bad guys have eaten lead the cops are there, which might not be such a big deal if the film hadn't indicated that the location was in the middle of nowhere and a long drive though empty territory! Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. The simple things are often the best. Broad stereotypes, obeying the formula and in this case leaving out the snappy and inane death quips leads to an excellent and too often overlooked action flick.If you liked this review (or even if you didn't) check out oneguyrambling.com

Keifer Sutherland is an undercover cop who has gotten himself in too deep, and Lou Phillips is a long-haired Indian on the trail of a stolen lance sacred to his tribe. The two team up against the bad guys, and all hell breaks loose. Plenty of car chases, shootouts and general mayhem ensue, in the best style of all those late 1980s low-budget crime thrillers. Sutherland and Phillips are always fun to watch, although Phillips is maybe a bit too stoic from time to time. The finale is high on the body count, which is all we can ask from many of these '80s action setpieces. If it all looks a bit dated now, especially Sutherland's funky-chicken hairdo, so be it. They can't all be DIE HARD or LETHAL WEAPON. Having said that, RENEGADES beats TANGO AND CASH any day.

The only reason I give Renegades as high a rating as I do is because I'm a great big fan of the leads Lou Diamond Phillips and Kiefer Sutherland. Rarely have I seen a major theatrical motion picture resting on a supposition as outrageous as this one.Kiefer Sutherland is a Philadelphia detective gone undercover on his own to find a corrupt cop. He's infiltrated a mob headed by a very cold blooded hood played by Robert Knepper who's planning a jewel heist.The heist goes off, but with some unforeseen complications. Such as the fact that Knepper while fleeing from the cops in hot pursuit, goes through the Philadelphia American Indian Museum and on impulse steals a sacred lance of the Lakota Sioux tribe. He also shoots Gary Farmer who tries to stop him and cold conks Sutherland who tries the same.Phillips is Farmer's brother and he and Sutherland form an alliance of convenience to accomplish their separate goals. But I have to say that the whole idea here is just plain preposterous.Phillips is a stoic Indian figure, he's carrying over his performance from Young Guns where he and Sutherland met and became lifetime friends. Sutherland's performance is a combination of Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry and Steve McQueen from Bullitt.For action fans there are enough gun battles and one great car chase as in Bullitt through the streets of Philadelphia/Toronto as some of Renegades was filmed there. As Sutherland and Phillips are good friends in real life as well the spirit of camaraderie does come through. Jami Gertz as Knepper's girl friend has a very nice role as basically an old time gangster moll.Yet the whole idea behind Renegades is just plain preposterous and unless you're a fan of either one or both the leads you're going to laugh yourself silly.

Kiefer plays an undercover cop who infiltrates a gang and takes part in a diamond heist where things get messy. They find out he's a cop and he almost gets iced. So here enters Phillips as a quiet dignified Lakota Indian who teams up with the hard boiled Kiefer because the diamond baddies stole his people's sacred lance. Yes, I said sacred lance. The supporting cast don't help matters any. Bill Smitrovich appears in the one note role as Sutherland's police superior and the moment Michael Moriarty shows up it's the "Hey I'm this movie's dirty cop. Yeah me!" dance.The only noteworthy element to Renegades is how quick the police response time is. Anything breaks out and they're on the scene pronto! In most movies, there's enough time to kill twenty people, blow up a building and have a car chase before the police even show up.I should mention the whole Native American Indian sub-plot and it's attempt at mixing culture fails miserably too. It's another variation on the whole buddy cop movie. The random factor is who's going to be the white guy's partner and having it be an Native American Indian doesn't change anything. Partnering up because of the sacred lance is without a doubt the absolute worse excuse to have two people join forces in an action movie I've ever seen too. 'They stole my secret lance - now we are partners'. Give me a break. It's not even so bad, it's funny. Renegades is a sad waste of nearly two hours if you're looking for it.