Renegades (1989) Universal/Action-Comedy RT: 106 minutes Rated R (violence, language) Director: Jack Sholder Screenplay: David Rich Music: Michael Kamen Cinematography: Phil Meheux Release date: June 2, 1989 (US) Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jami Gertz, Robert Knepper, Bill Smitrovich, Clark Johnson, Peter MacNeill, Floyd “Red Crow” Westerman, Joe Griffin, John Di Benedetto, Kyra Harper, Gary Farmer. Box Office: $9M (US)
Rating: ***
In between gigs playing cowboy in Young Guns and its 1990 sequel, Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips played different types of mavericks in Renegades, an action-comedy about a cop teaming up with a Native American to retrieve a stolen lance from a vicious criminal. It follows the usual buddy movie formula of two mismatched partners initially distrustful of one another eventually setting aside their differences to work together in solving a crime. While it’s no Lethal Weapon, it’s an entertaining action flick in its own right.
The plot of Renegades is pretty silly. It has to do with a lance belonging to the Lakota tribe. It’s been in their possession for generations. For our purposes, it’s the movie’s McGuffin. It gets stolen while it’s on display in a Philadelphia art gallery. The culprit is Marino (Knepper, D.O.A.), a nasty little piece of work who just stole $6 million in diamonds from a dealer. While running from the problem, he and his guys end up in the gallery where he grabs the lance killing the Native American that tries to stop him in the process. The victim’s brother Hank Snow (Phillips) goes after the gang to get it back.
What Hank doesn’t know is that a member of Marino’s gang is actually an undercover cop, Buster McHenry (Sutherland), trying to nab a dirty cop. In the fracas following the theft, Marino shoots Buster and leaves him for dead. Hank finds him and nurses him back to health. He needs him to help him get the lance back. They don’t like each other at first. Hank blames him for his brother’s murder. Buster prefers to work alone. Too bad for him ditching Hank isn’t easy. While they try to track down Marino with the help of his girlfriend, beauty shop owner Barbara (Gertz, The Lost Boys), the police are trying to nail Buster for his participation in the jewel robbery. It seems he was purposely vague to his CO (Smitrovich, Life Goes On) about what he was working on.
As a lifelong Philadelphia area native, I noticed right away that Renegades, while set in the City of Brotherly Love, wasn’t actually filmed there. Aside from some second unit scenes, it was shot mainly in Toronto. The biggest tip-off is the scene at the 2nd Street El Station. It’s NEVER been that clean, EVER! Neither have the city streets for that matter. And where are all the homeless people? This movie isn’t going for realism, that’s for sure.
Shall we take a closer look at the main characters? Buster is a lone wolf cop that doesn’t play by the rules. He carries with him guilt over the sins of his father, a dirty cop who went to prison. Hank is your typical stoic Native American trying to honor his heritage. He’s something of a prodigal son having left home for a period of time to find out who he is. He came home because it’s where he belongs according to his father, the tribe’s medicine man (Westerman, The Doors). This is as much character exposition as you’ll get in Renegades, but at least it’s something. Gertz, the only significant female character, is little more than a dose of estrogen. She primarily exists to be dragged around by the two leads while they try to track down her boyfriend. Given her ultimate fate, I’d say it’s not much of a relationship. In any event, Buster and Hank aren’t exactly an inspired pairing, but there’s enough chemistry between the two leads to make it not suck. Their banter isn’t all that clever or humorous. Buster constantly calling Hank “chief” is the height of humor. I can’t say I’m sold on Kiefer as a bad ass city cop. Phillips is more believable as a Native American even if his character does unbelievable things like jumping from one moving El train to another. Then again, who looks for verisimilitude in movies like Renegades?
While predictable and routine, Renegades benefits from the slick direction of Jack Sholder, the guy behind 1987’s sci-fi-actioner The Hidden. He knows his way around an exciting car chase sequence. He gives us a doozy in the first 20 minutes with Marino forcing Buster at gunpoint to ditch their pursuers, most of the Philly police force. Hank joins the chase in a stolen car. It’s a genuinely exciting sequence, the best in the movie. It’s so good, the rest of the movie is something of a letdown. There’s still plenty of action in it though.
Personally, I don’t think Renegades is all that funny. It wants to be, but it doesn’t come through. It’s definitely uneven with the scale tipping more towards action. However, I still like it. It wasn’t the huge box office hit the studio hoped it would be when they gave it an early summer release date. It’s enjoyable, but not strong enough to take on the likes of Indiana Jones or Batman. It’s good, but not that good.
