44 out of 58 people found the following review helpful:
Outlaw?
Beacon97 from ,
16th March, 2007
I conceded that OUTLAW is a strong title, but it's not really what the film is about. Sean Bean returns from service in Iraq to find his wife all cosy with someone else. So 'naturally' he walks away without a word and goes to a hotel. The hotel security guard is weird; he has the whole place locked down in illegal CCTV spy cameras - and he sees Bean with a cache-load of guns. He approaches Bean with the loose, somewhat vague idea of putting things right with the world by tackling those who go unpunished by the courts.... hmmm.... Danny Dyer has a weird, and somewhat convoluted story of dreaming of a car accident and being beaten up. This is too weird, because these scenes are not shot any differently to the rest of the film, so we don't know what to believe and you find your interest waning. Lennie James plays a barrister who's wife and child are threatened, concerning a case he's prosecuting. What does he do? He tells them he can't do what they want. Does he pack his wife off to somewhere safe? No, He doesn't even tell anyone he's been threatened. This is just one of the many holes in logic and character that Nick Love is banding about. Any husband of a pregnant wife would take such a threat very seriously, and would protect them even if he was sticking to his guns with the prosecution. You can guess what happens in one of the nastiest scenes in the film. There's an air of vigilanteism in this film, but it's not right. The characters are unbalanced, and it's really hard to find any sympathy for most of them, so you find yourself becoming annoyed with how half-heart or psychotic they react to things. Bean's character bears much more scrutiny than we are given, but he's locked into a two dimensional stereotype and there's no getting out. We find out very late that he's actually been court martialled from the army - but we don't know why. It's a shame, because Bean is very good. So too, as usual, is Bob Hoskins, as the retired copper who helps them with information on targets. The end, I won't tell you, but is very improbable, and you and I can see it coming from a mile away - but the characters appear to live in this twilight world where the bleeding obvious never occurs to them! We never see how these everday Joe Bloggs' become the vigilantes we see. We never see any training, never see any gun handling, never really believe the whole thing. The film is in 2.35:1, but I don't know why. The camera shakes like the cameraman has a bad case of the DT's and the colour is bleached out to presumably add grit to the picture. I really don't like watching a big screen where my vision is constantly wobbling and being thrown about. It might work on TV or DVD but it didn't suit the cinema (which is where I saw it). I can't give this muddled film a good rating, it just doesn't deliver on the vigilante theme, and the characters are so vague it's not even funny. Thumbs down, but if you like Sean Bean you might want to give it a watch.
Read all highest rated reviews
