Renegades

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.

RENEGADES is your standard buddy-buddy action cop thriller from the late '80s, with the twist here that one of the central twosome is a Native American and the other's, well, Kiefer Sutherland. Otherwise it's business as usual as the pair are forced into an unlikely partnership when they have to track down a gang of diamond thieves.

The film benefits immensely from the presence of skilled director Jack Sholder, straight from the excellent B-flick gem THE HIDDEN and bringing plenty of style in his wake. The early heist-turned-chase sequence is the definite highlight of the whole movie and although it never regains this level of expertise, it proves to be perfectly adequate.

The script is fairly routine but the addition of some Indian philosophy (and more than a little mumbo-jumbo) makes for a welcome change. Sutherland is a solid leading man even this early in his career, but Lou Diamond Phillips is the real star, bringing a zen-like calm to his character. RENEGADES isn't brilliant and certainly doesn't have the intensity of the likes of the first two LETHAL WEAPONs but it does pass the time well enough.

Kiefer Sutherland is an undercover cop trying to take down a dirty cop, which somehow involves him in a museum robbery; jewelry and the Lakota's Sacred Lance are taken, and Lou Diamond Phillips' brother is killing trying to defend it. Sutherland is wounded, so Phillips gets him healed and then proceeds to help him track down the dirty cop, despite Sutherland being one of those mavericks who only work alone, etc. You know the trope; it's usually accompanied by "this time it's personal" because otherwise he'd be in a diabetic coma from all the glazed doughnuts.

Phillips spends a lot of his time in Wooden Indian mode, but is a good enough actor to let us see he's putting it on for Sutherland, whom he constantly shows up, like Tonto telling the Lone Ranger not to step in the kemosabe. Otherwise it's a straight 1980s wrangling buddies movie, in which Philadelphia may be the City of Brotherly Love, but it's portrayed by Toronto, so the frequent gun battle interrupt the bromance.

Directed by Jack Sholder. Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Bill Smitrovich, Robert Knepper, Jami Gertz, Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman, Peter MacNeill, Clark Johnson. (R)

Undercover cop Sutherland and Native American Phillips team up to take down criminal scum and retrieve a tribal lance. It's a stretch just to get to that premise (the thieves that Sutherland are after just randomly decide to steal the spear during their diamond heist getaway), and it coasts thin from there on out, relying on the polish of high-concept product to carry the characters from scene to scene. The stars are in respectable genre form and there's some decent stuntwork on hand, but this is just the tired buddy action/comedy formula made without the freshness, sharp writing, electric chemistry and/or pulse-quickening excitement needed to elevate the material. The climax at the villain's ranch, if you're still awake by that point, is especially uninspired. Stick to "Young Guns" if you want to see Kiefer and Lou Diamond in action.

41/100

I can't understand why the cop drama/action film 'Renegades' has such a steady following (relegating it, of course, to cult status), although I can guess that it's familiar cast--Sutherland, Phillips, and Gertz--had much to do with it, because this is certainly one bland, if not condescending "thriller." Kiefer Sutherland plays good cop and bad cop. He's working undercover investigating a ruthless gang leader who is in cahoots with a dirty cop and brokers a deal with the gang leader on a jewel heist in exchange for giving up the cop's name. But, the ruthless leader is of course, ruthlessly violent, and the heist goes seriously foul. When the leader decides to take with him a valuable Native American relic, killing one young man's brother in the action, Lou Diamond Phillips seeks revenge like a martial arts film.

This movie is wholly unconvincing. You can figure it out almost immediately who the "dirty cop" as it is done without any subtleties. The story lingers on far longer than it should, especially with all of the effects of car chases and explosions of a good (if not cheesy) action film, minus the need for all of it. With either Sutherland's arrogant and seemingly out-of-place character or Phillip's "spiritual-mined" character-with-a-vengeance, this film probably would've been much better, even if following more of a martial arts genre routine, with just the story of the Native American family seeking revenge on the drug dealer. There is something here that does not mesh between the two main leads. And Gertz is wasted altogether.

For a good 1980s cop thriller, look elsewhere.