Renegades Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Renegades Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 2, 2022

Renegades is a hard-edged thriller that will all but leave the audience bloodied and bruised. The film hits hard, it's unapologetic, and it is very much a product of its time. It's also fairly vacuous but, hey, sometimes some brain-off action just fits the bill. That's especially true for a movie like this watched in 2022. It is something of a relic in terms of its structure, its technical build, and its style. Do not mistake Renegades as buried treasure, because it is anything but. However, for a rough and tumble 80s Action buddy flick this one hits harder than do many others. Its adherence to straightforward storytelling, without all of the unnecessary angling in today's movies, make it a satisfying throwback to a simpler time.

Buster McHenry (Kiefer Sutherland) is a cop on the edge working deep undercover. His latest move is to infiltrate a gang of thieves led by crime lord Bobby Marino (Robert Knepper) and nail a corrupt cop who is playing both sides. However, the move goes wrong and Buster finds himself part of the robbery. He and Marino flee police pursuit but not before, in addition to millions of dollars' worth of diamonds, Marino steals a priceless Native American artifact. Marino shoots Buster and leaves him for dead but he is found by Hank Storm (Lou Diamond Phillips) who helps nurse him back to health. The two pair up to retrieve the artifact, assuming they do not kill one another first.

One of the parts that works well for Renegades is the character pairing. Neither Buster nor Hank fit the stereotypical mold of the usual suspect buddy cop pairing, like the loose canon and the retiree cop or the veteran and the rookie cop. Buster is a dictionary definition of a gray area character. He doesn't fit into any mold, really, and toes the line between right and wrong. He's obviously not cold blooded, but he's also not on the up and up. He is his own man and his own character, which Sutherland inhabits with a balance of bravado and realism. The character bleeds and hurts and shows real and raw emotion along the way. He's not a one-liner machine, either, which is a nice reprieve from the stock characters usually found in these movies.

On the flip side is Loud Diamond Phillips’ Hank, who is not a saint at all, but still something of the moral center who walks firmly on his side of the line. He wants to retrieve his people’s priceless heirloom, and he doesn’t care what it takes to get what he wants. At one point, he and Buster bust in on a couple having sex. He holds a knife to the man’s throat while they wait out their pursuers. He also talks his way out of a standoff with a cop rather than just plug him and move on. But he will take blood when the situation warrants he take blood. He is no saint, and he dabbles in gray areas himself, just not quite to Buster’s smoky, hazy level of gray.

The action itself is quite robust. There's an extended car chase beginning around 20 minutes into the movie that's as rough and real as they come for 80s moviemaking where twisted metal, big pileups, and plenty of aerial stunts are the norm. It's one example of the movie's relentless nature; it's always moving forward, and even when the action pauses -- in the early hours after Buster and Hank meet and the former is recovering from grievous injury -- there's a sense of aggression, a need for the story to keep on moving forward with all of the momentum it has already built at its back. Sutherland and Phillips are a fine screen pairing; they're not as memorable as Danny Glover and Mel Gibson (that there was no Renegades franchise is a small reason why) and their characters are not so dimensional and well written, but even if they're more blunt force characters rather than finessed and polished players, there's no denying that the pair works well together on the screen, whether in action together or at one another's throats. The rest of the characters are stock, but they fill the space as needed to allow the movie's muscle and macho leads do the heavy lifting work.

Renegades Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Renegades: it could look better, it could look worse. The opening titles are splotchy and sloppy in appearance. The white titles reveal some blooming. The print is worn and ragged. Altogether these opening moments do not portend good things for the transfer to follow. However, it holds up relatively well. Grain is fairly stable, spiking a little in lower light and occasionally looking clumpy and mixed-up with some compression related blocking, but altogether the structure is adequate and the result is a generally decent looking image. The filmic front allows basics like faces, clothes, and rugged city street elements to delight with moderately good complexity. Colors ae likewise adequate for depth and stability, but do not expect lifelike vitality and fine point tonal nuance. Black levels do look a bit crushed (see around the 34:40 mark). Skin tones look fairly healthy. The print retains the odd splotch and speckle but nothing a halfway forgiving viewer cannot get over. This is hardly A-grade material but it certainly earns a passing grade.

Renegades Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Renegades makes the most of its DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. It plays much bigger, doing its best to amplify the intensity and push sound through the stage for all it's worth, and then some. There is a fair reproduction of action elements in play, particularly high-speed car chases and crashes but also gunfire which cannot match the precision of more freshly engineered tracks, but the net effect is nevertheless positive for the whole string of action at play throughout the film. It's also spread very wide, never afraid to push the left and right front channels to their fullest reach. Musical clarity and spacing are good enough as well, and city atmosphere and other environmental ambience play well enough with mild immersion to draw the listener in, even limited to two channels. Finally, dialogue is clear and well prioritized as it plays from a nicely imaged front and center area

Renegades Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only supplement included with this Blu-ray release of Renegades is the film's Theatrical Trailer (480i, 4x3, 1:31). No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does ship with Mill Creek's popular "Retro VHS" slipcover.

Renegades Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Audiences looking to flashback to the 80s when movies were grittier, the car crashes crunchier, the gun play deadlier, and the characters more rugged and rooted in the real world will find Renegades to be a breath of fresh air in a sterile 2022 environment. To be sure, Renegades is not a bastion of cinema creativity or relevance, but it's fun to remember how movies used to play back in the day, and this is a quintessential example of the stock of its time. Mill Creek's all-but-featureless Blu-ray (only the theatrical trailer is included) delivers imperfect but very acceptable video and very aggressive two channel lossless audio. Recommended, particularly at the aggressive price point.