Netflix has received a ton of backlash in the past few weeks as they decided to introduce their new systems against password sharing – something they used to be all in favor of. With that, essentially, they are betting on their original films and tv series to entice users to subscribe even more than before. And with such a huge change comes the need for high quality original content from the streaming platform. And movies like the freshly released Nimona have certainly fortified that need. Unfortunately, the duality of Netflix will always rear it’s ugly head, as when something good is released, inevitably something like The Out-Laws is also released.
The Out-Laws follows the story of Owen Browning, a goofy, man-child bank manager played by Adam Devine, and Parker McDermott, a yoga instructor played by Nina Dobrev. This wonderful couple is finally getting married, and very soon. However, things take a turn for the worse when Parker’s parents turn up out of nowhere for the wedding. The catch? Her parents, played by Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin, are actually world renowned bank robbers and criminals.
The movie begins on such a promising note, as the opener gets right down to business establishing the connection between Parker and Owen. They’re both slightly nerdy, certainly goofy, and have a great fondness for each other. I really appreciated the care they took to show that these two characters really genuinely love each other. However, shortly after this, the rest of the movie falls completely flat.
Adam Devine is born to play this sort of man-child character, and here its dialed up to 11. Yet, curiously, I found myself unable to utter any semblance of a laugh for most of the movie. I just didn’t find the jokes funny, the situations were outrageous, and not in the way a comedy movie wants, and some instances towards the second half of the film just left me scratching my head and asking why.
The only exception to this in the entire movie is Richard Kind. He plays Owen’s dad Neil and let me tell you he is absolutely hilarious. He has such a great feel for the role he was given, and every single joke he made or line he delivered hit on so many levels. I would honestly watch this movie again just for him. Thankfully, he actually gets a fair amount of screentime too.
Much like the duality of Netflix I described earlier, The Out-Laws undergoes a similar sort of pivot between halves of the film. In the first half, it’s a quirky comedy about a couple dealing with their parents. But by the second half, we hit full blown action comedy and boy does it not let up. Kicking it off with an impressive shootout in a wedding cake shop and including a massive car chase scene through a graveyard, I have to say I was entertained by these large set pieces.
Unfortunately, the film is constantly broken up with unfunny dialogue and situations that just feel dumb and try to drive the contrived and completely forgettable plot along.
Final Thoughts
The Out-Laws is one of those inevitable Netflix originals where they just chucked a whole bunch of money at the stars and said “let’s see what happens”. Unfortunately for them, what happened was just an unfunny mess that really didn’t feel like it had to be made. With the exception of some cool action sequences and Richard Kind, who carries this movies humor on his back, there’s really not a lot going for the film. It’s unfortunate that we constantly see movies like this being made when there are so many unique ideas coming from other places that deserve to get the budget a film like this gets. It seems as if Netflix only makes these movies so they can hit their top 10 list on their homepage and coerce you into watching with the facade that it’s “popular because it’s good”. You can easily skip this one the next time you’re browsing on Netflix.
