Long Gone Heroes

What was the point of this movie? It's something that's been done hundreds of times and all much better. The directing and editing were terrible, and it took two writers to come up with every predictable cliche and a lackluster story that made the dragged poorly paced two hour runtime feel much longer. Most of the action scenes were poorly filmed and choreographed.

The casting was great, although some actors needed better cast direction, and Frank Grillo as usual carried this movie. He's an underrated actor who deserves bigger and better roles. And although casting Andy Garcia may be a draw to see this movie, his max 5 min screen time didn't add any value to the movie, and it felt like he just called his lines in. It's a generous 4/10 all going to Grillo and the decent cinematography and location sets.

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.

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.

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.