Long Gone Heroes

The movie's cover was actually interesting enough for me to pick it up. And seeing that it was a movie that I hadn't already seen with Andy Garcia and Frank Grillo on the cast list, of course I opted to check it out.

The storyline in "Long Gone Heroes", as written by John Swab and Santiago Manes Moreno, was watchable, but hardly an outstanding foray into the action thriller genre. I can't claim that I was overly impressed with the narrative that they churned out, and it was somewhat slow paced and devoid of much of action scenes.

There are some familiar talents on the cast list, such as Andy Garcia, Frank Grillo, Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hutcherson, Beau Knapp and Melissa Leo. Needless to say that the acting performances in the movie were good.

The action scenes that were in the movie were good, but they were too few and far in between.

If you enjoy action thrillers, perhaps you should check out this 2024 movie, you might actually enjoy it more than I did as a casual viewer. I can honestly say that I am never sitting down to watch this movie a second time.

My rating of director John Swab's 2024 movie "Long Gone Heroes" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

They choppered the team in with all the interior lights on in the chopper. This is stealth? Then what really clinched it is when the tech guy stuffed his rifle into the sand barrel first just to steady himself when he bent down to talk to the girl. After that I just gave up and kept it on only for background noise.

Another day and another straight to streaming action film starring Frank Grillo. It is a shame as he is capable of much more when given decent material.

He plays, Gunner a jaded special forces soldier. He assembles a team to go to Venezuela to rescue his niece Julia, a crusading journalist. The neice also happens to be the daughter of a US Senator played by Oscar winner Melissa Leo.

Julia is held captive by local warlord called Roman (Andy Garcia) who wants his hands on some footage that she captured. He has an enforcer called Moreao (Mekhi Phifer) who has his own beef with Gunner.

The movie has some political statements regarding Venezuela and its issues with oil and corruption.

Apart from that. It is very much a seen it all generic action thriller. Although this one has a better quality cast.

Unfortunately it takes too long to get going and it needed to be 20 minutes shorter.

You also have to wonder why such a movie wants to have hissable baddies who threaten to kill babies with a gun.

So ridiculously formulaic. Special forces go in. Get into trouble. An unarmed fist fight which the hero wins. All ends well.

No wonder Americans think that their military is the best in the world.

Then there's the robotic script, wooden acting and the ending, the very definition implausibility.

Nonsense on film.

(2024) Long Gone Heroes ACTION THRILLER

Co-written and directed by John Swab that has California senator, Olivia Peterson (Melissa Leo) contacting former special ops, Gunner (Frank Grillo) to come out of retirement to save her daughter and his niece, Julia (Eden Brolin) who happens to be a humanitarian worker/ reporter. He then puts together a team sending West (Beau Knapp) and Matty (George Carroll) to fetch a tech guy named David (Josh Hutcherson). Together they would then travel to South America as according to their intel she was being held captive by some dug cartels. But by the time they showed up, the entire cartel family were already been killed with an old friend, Guapo (Juan Pablo Raba) sitting down eating who eventually becomes a part of Gunner's special ops group. It was later revealed she has been kidnapped again by a militia group led by Roman (Andy Garcia) with his right hand man, Moreau (Mekhi Phifer).

In terms of the action and the tone, while I was watching this, reminded me of two movies that I thought are way more superior than this one- one is "Blackhawk Down" and the one fight scene reminded me of "Commando". One of the inconsistencies about this movie is the fact that Gunner and his special ops had opportunities taking a hummer or two and instead decide to run through the streets. That did not even make any since one of those vehicles even had a built in machine gun.