Not every action movie gets a fair shot in theaters. Some come and go so fast that they barely register before they’re gone. Long Gone Heroes, directed by John Swab, felt like one of those movies. But with streaming, that kind of quick disappearance doesn’t always mean the end. It can just mean the movie’s real audience hasn’t found it yet.
That audience seems to be catching up now. The film has broken into Paramount+’s movie mix, where it’s started getting more attention than it ever did in its original release window. For a hard-edged war thriller led by Frank Grillo, that kind of streaming rebound makes sense. This is exactly the sort of movie people stumble across and throw on late at night.
The cast includes Grillo, Andy Garcia, Josh Hutcherson, Melissa Leo and Wendy Moniz, and the film leans into the rough, stripped-back action style Grillo does well. It may not have made much noise when it first arrived, but Paramount+ is giving it a much better second chance. Sometimes that’s all a movie like this needs. The cast is also rounded out by Juan Pablo Raba, Beau Knapp, George Carroll, and Eden Brolin.
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Why Did Frank Grillo Make ‘Long Gone Heroes’?
Grillo, known for his gritty roles in The Purge series and Captain America, as well as his recent turn in Peacemaker for James Gunn, leads the film as Gunner, a former special forces operative. Grillo’s collaboration with director Swab is no coincidence — this marks their fifth project together. Grillo shared his admiration for Swab in a recent interview:
“Yeah, I got a guy named John Swab, who I’ve done five movies with now, Ida Red and Body Brokers. We just finished one with Mekhi Phifer, actually called Land of Grace, a really cool, kind of Extraction-esque type of film. I love this kid. I think he’s dynamite.”
Long Gone Heroes is streaming now.
- Release Date
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September 20, 2024
- Runtime
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122 Minutes
- Director
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John Swab
- Writers
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John Swab, Santiago Manes Moreno
