A Sneaky Good Action Movie Has Been Dominating Netflix

Are you ready for a tough-as-nails military actioner with a super-talented cast? Fire up Netflix.

Rogue Warfare: The Hunt has been absolutely tearing up the streamer over the weekend, blazing all the way to #1 on its Top Ten list for movies. The flick, focusing on an elite military unit tasked with taking down a mysterious international terrorist organization, is generating some serious heat among viewers as we head into the dog days of what must be the weirdest summer of all time.

Before we dive in, you should probably know that if this flick sounds like it's up your alley, there's more where it came from: It's the second in a trilogy, the first being 2019's Rogue Warfare and the third being Rogue Warfare: Death of a Nation, which is expected to be released to VOD platforms in the United States some time later this year. The three films were shot simultaneously by director Mike Gunther, a veteran stunt coordinator with a list of credits a mile long, and the trilogy is the first project to go from script to screen under the banner of 5150 Action Productions, which has recently been involved with such releases as Star Trek Beyond, Bumblebee, and Bad Boys for Life.

Gunther chose to cast the films based not on name recognition but on pure talent, and as such, his cast features a number of faces that might not be immediately familiar to American audiences (via Deadline). It includes Will Yun Lee (The Good Doctor, Altered Carbon) in the lead role of Daniel, Jermaine Love (Lucifer) as Ralph, Rory Markham (Bad Boys for Life) as James, Bertrand-Xavier Corbi (The Outsider) as Jacques, Katie Keene (What Lies Ahead) as Galina, Fernando Chien (Iron Fist, Hawaii Five-O) as Xu, Chris Mulkey (Castle Rock) as Commander Brisco, and Stephen Lang (Avatar, Don't Breathe) as the President.

Rogue Warfare: The Hunt picks up from where the first film left off. That flick saw top soldiers from all over the world coming together to form a coalition to deal with the rising threat of a terrorist organization known as the Black Mask (sorry, that's no relation to Ewan McGregor's bonkers Birds of Prey villain of the same name), which is intent on destabilizing the world through a series of catastrophic attacks. This time around, their de facto leader Daniel has been kidnapped and is being held hostage by the sinister organization; The Hunt, as implied by its title, deals strictly with the efforts of the team to find and rescue him.

Along the way, they find that a growing number of disenfranchised people are becoming sympathetic to the Black Mask's cause, and they're also stymied by intelligence that seems to be suspiciously outdated and terrorist cells and encampments that always seem to be one step ahead of them. The film's narrative, a little tighter than the first, allows for a bit more exposition into the motives of the Black Mask organization, and also for action and combat sequences that pack a tense, claustrophobic punch.

The events of the flick nicely set up the third chapter, which, if it follows the release pattern established by the first two flicks, should hit Netflix late this year or early next (The Hunt was released to VOD in April, and is already available on the streamer). In the meantime, you can stream the first two installments in the trilogy right now.

Obviously, there's a reason why Rogue Warfare: The Hunt landed at the top spot on Netflix's list of most-watched movies in the U.S. — even if temporarily. The film has pulled audiences in with its high-octane action and top-notch cast; if there were no selling points of Rogue Warfare: The Hunt, no one would be watching it. 

Unfortunately, some people feel that last statement is true: that Rogue Warfare: The Hunt isn't worth your time. On Rotten Tomatoes, the flick doesn't even have a critical score, and posts a measly six percent rating from just 18 registered audience reviews. That seems pretty bleak and certainly confusing considering that it works against the popularity of the movie on Netflix. Rogue Warfare: The Hunt doesn't fare much better on IMDb, where it holds a 3.1 out of 10-star rating. Over on Amazon Prime Video, the film boasts a more respectable 3.7 stars out of 5. 

All in all, it appears that the people who dig Rogue Warfare: The Hunt really dig it, and the people who don't really don't. No movie is made for everyone, but this pic is a sneaky good one that you may want to give a watch if you're curious as to what all the fuss is about.