
In Hounds of War (2024), I had the notion that Grillo starred in too many movies as he was already featured in high-profile movies too often, which made me feel that Grillo happens to be part of a movie every second week. It also looked like it was possible for it to take place in such a combination to this Day which featured the release of Long Gone Heroes with Hounds of War also making its debut that particular day.
Considering that I am fond of action movies, I started watching Hounds of War since it features Isaac Florentine. But I changed my mind because Boss Level 2020 is Mr. Grillo’s best action movie in which he played in Long Gone Heroes since it is great in terms of both action and thriller.
Long Gone Heroes looks at the fifth John Swab and Grillo venture which seems to please Grillo who appears to be in a position to play the stoic hero. Of course, there are some vile villains, and as always there is plenty of action for the expectations from his fans. The Venezuelan setting may be designed to be filmed in the USA, which makes them feel a little out of place, so the accents are a bit off, but these are just minor issues that do not take away from the joy of watching the picture. Well, the fact that American audiences would find the use of a Scottish voice to overdub their films pretty ridiculous is not news, so a decent amount of American faceoff should not come as a surprise. There’s a spectrum of emotions from the movies I have, bewilderment is not one of them. Long Gone Heroes are not this badly off so don’t be too concerned about these little production issues. And by the way, the sound design is awful and the acting is, shall we say, not a strong suit to begin with.
Gunner Grillo, or Grillo, is a man of experience. After all, he is a former Special Forces soldier and a built one at that. But he gives up his career as soon as he transfers from America only for his niece to get kidnapped and he is forced to get involved. One of the cast members is Eden Brolin who plays the role of Great Abductor’s niece who went to Venezuela to rebel against her mother who goes by the name of the USA’s governor. An actress in the movie, Melissa Leo, is the mother of this character. Yet another plot element includes a case of a possible kidnapping in which one of the mothers of pseudoplastic aids helped the Romanian drug dealer Andy Garcia towards becoming a kidnapper.
One of the factors I think has led to this Polaroid-style photograph being as Polaroid-style photograph is very base to Polaroid film as well is that Swab’s devotion to ’70s aesthetics is easily recognizable in so many of his pieces. There is no dressing in his words, they are straight from the…” He adds that it is not his business how the action is filmed in a movie.
The characters’ dialogues in the movie get the Tower Hill treatment getting the bare minimum respect, which isn’t exactly how one would want them to be handled in the movie. Leaving aside Grillo’s Gunner, the audience is left guessing about his team members until the first act is over. Strangely, their noun is revealed to the viewers after the climax has finished, and the viewers are able to see the characters through a different lens than fear. During that time they did a wonderful performance guided by a moral framework. Even though their language was tame, they were ready to fight for a great cause.
I think the film is best depicted through its outlandish characters and Grillo’s performance is quite uncanny in its realism in which he plays the Gunner role, that is a calloused character who has seen better days in his life. He sets out on a journey to find his niece and fights what can be described only as a small army, whilst on this journey he starts to turn back into the person he once was. When I reviewed Hounds of War, I was worried about the limited time Grillo got on camera during the later portions of the film. Although, there don’t seem to be any worries here at all. There are plenty of movie stars making themselves available in quite a number of brawl scenes and clear roles as meat shields for Grillo. Particularly when Phifer and Grillo were attacking the other characters during the last part of the movie those parts were interesting.
Evidently, a promising actor who has West’s role in Shady’s film gets very little recognition in the film is Beau Knapp who played West. Shady, on the other hand, is a rather low verbal character but more miraculously is empathic to the viewer. Also, similar to Gunner, West in this instance is quite pessimistic as well, however, due to his abilities he manages to avoid going completely off the deep end as a result of the constant worrying he does of his comrades.
Knapp manages to portray feelings through the faintest and the smallest of gestures to such an extent that the fact of development is almost imperceptible to the audience which is only agitated by the flow of events. Knapp is someone that I have pegged for greatness for quite a while now. Especially after shooting to fame with his hit role in The Signal (2014). But his roles in Southpaw (2015), The Finest Hours(2016), and Sand Castle (2017) broadened him somewhat more than his previously much-constricted roles. Somewhere, things have changed from this time but he is not in the film most of the time and this time is different.
It is quite true that Knapp put on a better role on this one given that he had a really hard time demonstrating his talent in the recent Road House (2024) He has again partnered with Swab this time round after his long spell of absence in the collaboration s with him on the 2021 crime thriller titled Ida Red where he starred with Frank Grillo and also Melissa Leo who are also his co-stars in Long Gone Heroes. Another of his regulars is George Carroll who is popularly known by his stage name Slaine and he does quite well in the role of Guesser in Gunner’s team of fighters. He is actually rather a John Swab good luck story as it seems that he is in most of his movies than Grillo. Some of his teammates may have more talent than he does but he adds a lot of love and great depth to the character. Further, sociopathic Guapo is competently played by Juan Pablo Raba Who in this instance, together with the other men in the field, manifests his loyalty and commitment to fellow comrades during the course of the movie.
We are happy to introduce Raba, once again, to all of you, after a short break. He left a strong impression on us when he performed in titles such as marksman or freelancer and without a doubt he doesn’t feel in any way restricted with this role now as he had with all his other roles. Then, there’s Hutcherson, a name that is a bit more known to the crowd among actors.
For all his fascinating tics in a villainous role in his recent work The Beekeeper (2024), he plays David as a good tech specialist, though he can be very charming when need be. Quite often, it is indeed tediously lost if confined within action, but there he is locating himself in a plot full of intense action and danger. As for Hutcherson, in this case, he appears as a trembling and fidgety funny David who, most importantly, is an ordinary person and gets word through the ‘narrating’ angle while exploring the hi-tech chaos around.
Eden Brolin is the only other female lead in the movie apart from Melissa Leo which happens to be one of the many things in this section despite her clearly wishing to do the right thing she does come off as somewhat of a jerk in her and Hutcherson’s David exchange in which case does the les worse, to say the least. Her saying that everyone is an idiot, makes it somewhat clear that she does not entirely appreciate what he has done for her which is, to say the least, risking his life for her, which is somewhat clear. For all of her complaints, she gets some of what she wants once she begins noticing that the men around her are trying to protect her at the expense of their own safety.
But contrary to this, Melissa Leo doesn’t get to spend endless minutes on the screen however she does immerse herself in the film with authoritative endeavors and this is essentially because of her role as a US governor. She has been put in such a powerful state so she is engaged in some really naughty business. I am not in any way an authority on politics or even saying that the thoughts within this movie are in any way feasible but they do give a good twist to the storyline of the movie and make Long Gone Heroes more advanced than just an ordinary war action film.
The role assumed by Andy Garcia in the motion picture is slightly diminished but still, he is seated among the main characters; instead, Mekhi Phifer assumes the role of the leading male antagonist. The off-putting sensation of humanity is also displayed by both of them and they together indisputably firmly secure the slots amongst the most atrocious roles either of these actors has played.
It’s apparent Swab never intended to film a classic rough and tough shoot ’em up. This is quite evident during the first part of the movie when he takes his time building both character and storylines. Quite literally there is an hour of setup before all the action pays off, but that does come, and before it, the ever so tentatively escalates. And when action does come, it is rarely restrained. Naturally, such elements as violent lifts and nonexcessive smoke gunfire are commonplace nowadays in the industry, but it’s not too bad.
The film Long Gone Heroes stepped a notch further when some really nice shooting was done by the d.p. Brandon Cox of the film. Most of the film was set in jungle areas and was obviously shot at night only and Cox’s night shots are worth mentioning. To be honest, I would expect Cox to have moved on from the DTV and VOD ages ago when he shot for one of my favorite directors Steven C. Miller. More DTV hate coming, but a lot of my favored spots have been made in this way, however, Cox’s work is at par with many established D-O P’s.
Long Gone Heroes for me was an unexpected delight, truth be told. I will not even mention some minor faults as they are too minor and do not shadow the fact that it’s an action suspense to die for with as much attention paid to character development as to the action.
John Swab has already started working on another project, King Ivory that features crime and criminal organizations. This film is certainly a timely one, with its focus on the Fentanyl epidemic. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be returning for this one either but I imagine he doesn’t mind because he has several others waiting to be completed or filming to begin soon.
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