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Outlaw (2007)

Director: Nick Love

Average user rating

5 reviews

Synopsis

Violent British thriller about a group of men who take the law into their own hands.

Movie review

From Time Out London

Ethically obnoxious and temperamentally hateful, ‘Outlaw’ is a pumped-up apologia for vigilantism wrapped in the bloody rags of a gangland caper. Writer-director Nick Love’s regular lead Danny Dyer (‘The Football Factory’, ‘The Business’) partially modifies his usual wide-boy shtick as Gene, a City trader whose off-the-peg perfect life (blonde fiancée, penthouse apartment) is disrupted by a body- and ego-bruising encounter with feral thugs. Needful of reassurance and vengeance, he falls in with a motley collective led by Bryant (Sean Bean), a charismatic but at least half-mad ex-serviceman who feels the country has gone to the dogs; also involved are disgruntled ex-cop Bob Hoskins, bereaved barrister Lennie James, battered student Rupert Friend and CCTV creep Sean Harris. What starts out as the London branch of Fight Club soon bends towards ‘street justice’, becoming a gang on the lam – but, it’s suggested, one with grass-roots support for their sociopathic spree. According to Love, ‘Outlaw’ had its origins in his and others’ concerns about real-life violence, but the result yokes laughably incredible genre action to tabloid scare-mongering of the most objectionable kind: a self-appointed death squad takes arms against a cartoonishly corrupt criminal justice system in cahoots with caricature mafiosi; torture and murder become problematic only when taken ‘too far’; and while women’s security is cited as a major concern, their screen presence amounts to two minutes’ window dressing. What were the capable cast thinking?

Author: Ben Walters

Time Out London Issue 1907: March 7-13 2007

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User reviews of this film

dave said...

Posted on Jan 27 2010 17:54 this is a brilliant film, just watched it for the second time. definitely in my top 5 of the last few years

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Danny D said...

Posted on Nov 01 2009 19:00 Excellent film geeza!

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sean bean said...

Posted on Feb 26 2009 15:15 film of the year

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yduric said...

Posted on Feb 24 2008 20:26 Obnoxious, did you say? Well. I do,know, and so I suppose everyone else does, that taking justice into your own hands is not the ultimate solution, BUT, there is far more obnoxious on-screen garbage out there, like for instance, the nauseating 'Alpha Dog', or the German equally disgustingTV-movie 'Wut' ('Rage' in English') that glorify criminal behaviour. At least. in 'Outlaw' , it felt good to see real scumbags having their brains blown up. Moreover, I also think that if you take a deeper look into it, 'Outlaw' is not without humour, contrarily to its criminal apologizing counterparts I just quoted, which take themselves obnoxiously too seriously.

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Lee Hesh said...

Posted on Jan 10 2008 23:24 This film is a dream, it evokes thoughts of "If only we could".
This film is fantastic in all aspects, great story, acting and directing.
10/10

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