Rangers (2000)

Too many fans seem to be blown away

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Invasion USA (1985). Red Heat (1988). Navy Seals (1990). Sure, you could spend around five hours watching all three - like a SUCKER! Or you could save time like someone smart and just watch Rangers! Yes, Rangers wasn't so much directed by Jim Wynorski as it was cobbled together from different sources by him and a team of editors. Evidently, it also contains footage from The Delta Force (1986) and The Hidden (1987), as if they felt they needed material from a total of five movies because they were in serious danger of creating too much of their own original content. We wonder if it's fun for filmmakers to assemble a movie in this fashion. After all, they have to try and match the sets of certain scenes so they can be edited together. For example, the set designers for what remains of the original production of Rangers had to make an office space that resembled the one from the climax of Invasion USA, so it would match. But then again, in many other scenes, the cobbles don't match at all, and it seems like they just don't care.But maybe that's where the fun of Rangers lies - watching in amusement and mild incredulity that the filmmakers would try to pass off a patchwork quilt as one original piece. Who did they think they were fooling? Perhaps less-sophisticated moviegoers were their intended audience, but if you're watching Rangers, the odds are very good you've also seen the movies it's edited from. No one skips directly to Rangers without watching at least some of the others. We're pretty sure that's never happened. Clearly the budget wasn't there for large action setpieces, and it's just more economical to simply buy them from other movies. We realize this is pretty common in latter-day DTV outings, but it's never more extensive or blatant as it is in Rangers.But, piecemeal nature aside, if you've ever wanted to see Lloyd Braun of Seinfeld fame shoot people and savagely murder them, now is your chance. Matt McCoy's faces are truly funny to observe, and the only thing that would make this better is if, while he was unloading his machine gun, he was shouting "SERENITY NOW!!!!!" Sadly, this doesn't happen, even though his stint on Seinfeld was pretty close time-wise to his role here. Clearly the casting people saw McCoy as Lloyd Braun and thought "that would be perfect casting for our hard-ass Army Ranger". It all just adds to the off-kilter, "this shouldn't exist" vibe of Rangers. So if the shooting, blow-ups, inserted footage from other movies, and pre-9/11 Islamic terrorism doesn't hold your interest, surely McCoy's wide-eyed mugging will.While Corbin Bernsen is in it for a few minutes, the movie is pretty much stolen by one Dartanyan Edmonds as Fenton. We're thinking he may be the lost musketeer. He gets all the good lines and has some nice charisma and screen presence. The movie would be worse off without him. Glenn Plummer also tries nobly to save the sinking ship, but it's truly a case of "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic". Still, you've got to admire the guy for trying.So if you're looking for anything remotely close to military or cinematic accuracy, run screaming in the other direction from Rangers. If you want a movie (well, technically, six movies all told) with a rock-bottom budget filled with unabashed stupidity just to have a larf, well, Rangers is certainly that.

I can't believe I've spent two hours of my time on this junk recycle movie. The wish for turning it off, went to maximum, when I saw several scenes form the Arnold Shwarzeneger movie where he plays captain Renko, with Jim Belushi. That was pathetical! This film should be banned for everybody! Yikes! This was highlight of the movie, a borrowed scene from another film, that was used in this one... Wondering who read the script... Believe me, I saw many bad movies, but this is for avoiding! That's all, can't waste any more words on this "cinematografic experience"

There are two sure ways to identify a movie filmed on a low, low budget. One is when blaring mistakes are made in the continuity and detail of the movie and not caught by the film maker. For instance, when a character is introduced as a sergeant in one scene, and then in the very next scene, he's a lieutenant. Or, when a boat is rented for a scene and the flashing red lights of the burglar alarm are left on outside the entrance to the cabin while filming the sequence. This in and of itself isn't that bad, but, when the scene starts off with a burglar breaking into the boat right next to said flashing red lights, one can't help but notice and wonder how that got missed. That's right, you guessed it, these are but a couple examples of the myriad of mistakes made in `Rangers'. The amount of footage stolen from other movies is the other way to quickly ID a cheap movie. Of course, I've seen movies where a few seconds of a scene from a different film is used without it being noticed to much. But `Rangers' goes way to far in this respect. Twenty five minutes of footage is used in `Rangers' from the Chuck Norris flick `Invasion U.S.A'. In fact, during one stolen scene, one can see the main bad guy from `Invasion U.S.A', Richard Lynch, leading his band of terrorists on the assault of a government building; a scene which is suppose to be from `Rangers'. It's almost like the writer of `Rangers' ran out of ideas in the middle of making the movie and decided to stick any old chunk of film in there to fill the hole. A little advice to any aspiring film makers out there, don't steal footage from a really bad movie and add it to your own really bad movie. This only makes for a really, really bad movie. And that's my opinion of `Rangers', a really, really bad movie.

This supposed action pic should be marketed as a comedy. Of errors that is. Wooden acting, a ridiculous plot, and numerous continuity errors could be over looked if you watch this as a laff packed action fest. Right from the get go you know your in la la land when the rangers jump out of a Hercules transport at dawn somewhere over the mideast, but then after a water landing they surface in the dark! The continuity errors continue throuout the pic, costumes and make up change multiple times within scenes. But ya know what, it does'nt matter! The script is even more ludicrous. After the Rangers capture a terrorist and bring him to the USA the bad guys do a night landing of several hundred baddies on a FL beach using WW2 landing craft! Yuh Right!All this does'nt matter if you view this as a 6 pack comedy! You get paratrooper fu! Our favorite 90's [and new millennium!] bad guys, the typical Hollywood Arab idiots, and best of all, a duelling bus-fu chase to top it all off! I love bus chases... esp. when trains are involved!