the outlaws movie review guardian

The Out-Laws

“The Out-Laws,” about a blithering schmuck ( Adam DeVine ) who gets tangled up with his fiancee’s secret-bank-robber parents ( Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin), would be skippable even if it didn’t have the rotten timing to debut a week after the death of the great  Alan Arkin , one of the stars of the “ The In-Laws ,” a movie that this new film incompetently tries to channel. Nearly every aspect of this feature from Tyler Spindel , formerly a second unit director for Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, is derivative and desperate and, at the same time, bizarrely pleased with itself. 

Devine’s character, Owen Browning, is a bank manager, despite being so cloddish and lacking in judgment or impulse control that it’s hard to imagine him being trusted to take a bag of garbage to the curb. His fiancee Parker ( Nina Dobrev ), is a yoga instructor everyone in Owen’s family inexplicably thinks is a stripper. She’s pleasant and conventionally attractive, but just quirky enough not to come across as bland or dull. She seems stable and mature. We never understand why she’d be with a guy like Owen, who freaks out at the most minor things, obsesses over action figures and pop culture trivia, and can’t overcome the urge to blurt out any thought that pops into his head, no matter how inappropriate or insulting. This sort of dynamic is the movie equivalent of the TV sitcom formula where an irritating, clueless, selfish man-child somehow ends up married to a beautiful saint.

Neither Owen nor his parents ( Julie Hagerty and Richard Kind ) have ever met Parker’s parents, Billy and Lilly, whose cover story is that they’re globetrotting anthropologists who’ve been in the Amazon for many years studying the Yanomami tribe. To their everlasting regret, Billy and Lilly do the meet-the-in-laws thing. Owen spills enough details about his job to guarantee a robbery and an investigation because Billy and Lilly need a lot of cash fast, and Owen makes it easy for them to raise it. The story is effectively over halfway through the film’s running time but insists on continuing, serving up theoretically madcap but mostly repetitive retreads of things that happened in the first half, but with more car chases and “twists” and shooting and yelling. 

The cast is as impressive as its efforts are futile. Besides Brosnan, Barkin, Kind, and Hagerty, “The Out-Laws” features Poorna Jagannathan as Billy and Lilly’s deranged money launderer;  Michael Rooker as an alcoholic FBI agent who wears a straw boater hat in lieu of genuine eccentricity; and  Lil Rel Howery as the hero’s excitable, shout-y best friend, a type who’s been imported straight from “ Get Out .” “The Out-Laws” does this sort of thing a lot, compulsively reminding you of better films you could be watching instead, from the “Ocean’s” pictures and “Heat” to “ Die Hard ” (a snippet of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony plays when Owen gets to see the inside of the most sophisticated bank vault in town). The title even boasts a grammatically unnecessary hyphen to ensure you know which classic provided its core DNA.

Overqualified bit players show up, goof around a bit, and disappear. All have been delightful presences elsewhere. This film gives them next to nothing to work with. They’re kneecapped by the sloppy, improv-y mucking about that’s become the default mainstream Hollywood comedy mode since the ’90s. There are two credited screenwriters, Evan Turner and Ben Zazove . One would assume or perhaps hope that they contributed the occasional line that has personality and seems tied to the psychology of one of the characters (as when Margie insists, “I always knew they were criminals … They drink during the day”). 

But it’s hard to tell, and in the end, who cares? Half-assed doesn’t describe this movie. It’s quarter-assed at best. It plays like a workshop filmed in full dress on lit and decorated sets. Characters blurt sentences that are not only nonsensical but are barely connected to the story, while the other characters in the scene labor to “top” them or else “react” by wincing or huffing or making a “Wow, that’s weird; why would anyone say something like that?” face. Devine’s mugging is nonstop and barely modulated. The movie is shot in the wide CinemaScope ratio for no discernible reason other than to reassure viewers that they’re watching “cinema” rather than 40 YouTube sketches strung end-to-end.  

There’s a solid tradition of droll but hard-edged slapstick comedies of the type that this film wants to evoke. It stretches from “The In-Laws” through “ Midnight Run ” and “ The Freshman ” through “ Central Intelligence ” and “ Game Night .” But the worst five seconds of any of these is better than the best moment in “The Out-Laws.” Imagine the most irritating DreamWorks animated comedy that could exist with humans instead of animals or creatures and done in live-action. You won’t have to imagine very hard because there’s a scene in “The Out-Laws” where a robber wears a Shrek mask. Of course, he tries to do the character’s Scottish accent. And, of course, he asks one of his colleagues if he did the accent well or sounded Irish. Watch “The In-Laws” instead.  

Now playing on Netflix. 

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

• Pierce Brosnan as Billy McDermott
• Adam DeVine as Owen Browning
• Nina Dobrev as Parker McDermott
• Ellen Barkin as Lilly McDermott
• Lauren Lapkus as Phoebe King
• Poorna Jagannathan as Rehan
• Julie Hagerty as Margie Browning
• Lil Rel Howery as Tyree
• Blake Anderson as Cousin RJ
• Michael Rooker as Agent Oldham
• Richard Kind as Neil Browning
• Reyn Doi as Babayan
• Evan Turner
• Ian Kezsbom
• Phillip Kimsey

Cinematographer

• Michael Bonvillain
• Rupert Gregson-Williams
• Tyler Spindel

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The Outlaws review: Christopher Walken does community service in slightly naff misfit comedy

Stephen merchant’s new series follows a gang of rebels in the west country, article bookmarked.

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Christopher Walken is the poster attraction for Stephen Merchant ’s new crime caper, The Outlaws , about a group of misfits who meet on a community service programme. It’s a BBC/Amazon co-production, which maybe explains why the 78-year-old has been tempted out of his velvet-lined coffin in Connecticut to muck in with a herd of British character actors.

Those staring eyes and halting Scots-German-Queens accent do not come cheap. He plays Frank, a fraudster released from a long spell in prison to be welcomed home by his daughter, Margaret (Dolly Wells), and his grandchildren. She is ambivalent about his return, although not for long. Who can stay angry at Christopher Walken?

After being fitted with an ankle tag, Frank is sent off to pay his debt to society, where he meets the rest of the gang. There are seven characters who must pick litter all day in the garden of a rundown estate, watched over by their officer Diana (Jessica Gunning). Community service is a promising structure, because it forces the characters together during the daytimes but lets them out to advance the plot, or their relationships, in the evenings. Despite Walken’s wattage, the breakout star is Rhianne Barreto as Rani, a schoolgirl whose arrest for shoplifting has jeopardised her place at Oxford. It’s a sympathetic performance with more depth than you might expect given her surroundings.

Halfway through the first episode, Rani, talking to the flirtatious gang member Christian (Gamba Cole) helpfully identifies the rest of the crew. As well as Walken’s “shifty old timer” there is a “right-wing blowhard” (Darren Boyd as dodgy businessman John); a “left-wing militant” (Clare Perkins as Myrna); a “celebutante” (Eleanor Tomlinson as Lady Gabby, a posho influencer); and “whatever the hell he is”. (Merchant as a recently divorced solicitor, Gregg. Yes, he opens with a gag about his height.) As for herself, she is a “studious Asian good girl”, while Christian is the “bad boy”. He is trying to extricate himself from his gang involvement, while preventing his sister, who like Rani is a promising student, from being similarly embroiled. Stay tuned to find out how this sequence of events draws the misfits together in unexpected ways. The knowing acknowledgement that the characters are all archetypes is not the same thing as developing them beyond that, and it remains to be seen whether they will be taken in more interesting directions.

Merchant, who co-wrote the series with Elgin James, has said he sees The Outlaws as a kind of western with west country accents. The first episode is bookended with action sequences, but they are pedestrian in both senses. In general the aesthetic is classic Merchant, that sub-Edgar Wright suburban banality where everyone converses mostly in dad jokes and everything looks a bit naff. There are one or two laughs, mostly from Merchant, but the overall effect is very BBC comedy, and not entirely in a good way. This schtick can work, but it needs a lot of charm to compensate for the complete absence of glamour. From this first hour, it’s not clear whether The Outlaws has it. The studios must be convinced as they commissioned a second series, but this gang of rebels seems to stick pretty closely to the TV rules.

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The Outfit review – Mark Rylance’s mob tailor makes the cut

The Oscar-winner gives a cool, calm centre to this tightly-buttoned drama about Chicago gangsters rooting out a mole

T he title has a double edge: it means a suit of clothes, and also the mob. US screenwriter and novelist Graham Moore won an Oscar for scripting The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch as wartime codebreaker Alan Turing . Now he’s made his directing debut with his own co-written screenplay: an amusingly contrived single-location suspense thriller, full of twist and counter-twist, set in 1950s Chicago (the city of Moore’s birth). It sometimes feels like a more refined, more well-spoken and well-tailored version of Reservoir Dogs , with besuited gangsters turning guns on each other in an enclosed space and a shot tough guy seething in agony from his bullet wound. But it has a heavier tread than this: owing more, maybe, to Hitchcock’s Rope .

Mark Rylance provides a solid centre with a typically calm, coolly composed, quietly spoken performance, often giving us an opaque and unnerving twinkle of mischief. He plays Leonard, a British tailor who left his homeland (for shadowy reasons) with nothing but his tailor’s scissors, and set up shop in Chicago. The reason he’s been able to make a success of things is that he is almost solely patronised by the local gangsters: the ageing capo is Roy Boyle (Simon Russell Beale), who runs this turf with his unreliable hothead son, Richie (Dylan O’Brien); Richie is snarlingly resentful that his old man now favours a smooth new lieutenant, Francis (Johnny Flynn).

These bad-mannered gangsters often order fancy suits from Leonard, but use his shop’s backroom as an HQ and hangout. Poor, sensitive Leonard has to quietly accept their boozy bullying (he’s actually fond of a drink himself) and get on with the trade about which he is passionate. It has given him a skill in sizing up men’s bodies and also their souls: he knows from the way they carry themselves what sort of people they are, and how to dress them. Leonard has a fatherly concern for his secretary, Mable (a nice performance from Zoey Deutch), who is keeping secrets from him. Things go terribly wrong when a rat in Roy Boyle’s organisation is suspected of selling them out to a rival gang and also the FBI, which has been tape-recording incriminating conversations using a device concealed with the rat’s help. Now the guys have managed to get hold of one of these tapes, and if they can play it, they will discover the bug’s location and get a fix on the rat’s identity. But what if the rat is higher up than anyone thinks?

In truth, the “tape” MacGuffin is a bit laboured, and the whole movie seems sometimes to be moving at about 80–90% of its required speed and energy. And there is also something stylised and slightly non-realistic about the way the nationwide mob is imagined to be an occult secret organisation called “the Outfit”, slightly different from the Cosa Nostra we already know about. But there is also a theatrical charm and composure to the performances (and once again, it’s time to marvel at the way Brit actors such as Beale and Flynn get to play Chicago tough guys). We know that these soldiers of crime are underestimating humble civilian Leonard, but it remains for us to find out what has actually been going on. It’s an entertaining, fairly overwrought piece, a little tightly buttoned.

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The Out-Laws

A straight-laced bank manager about to marry the love of his life. When his bank is held up by infamous Ghost Bandits during his wedding week, he believes his future in-laws who just arrived... Read all A straight-laced bank manager about to marry the love of his life. When his bank is held up by infamous Ghost Bandits during his wedding week, he believes his future in-laws who just arrived in town, are the infamous Out-Laws. A straight-laced bank manager about to marry the love of his life. When his bank is held up by infamous Ghost Bandits during his wedding week, he believes his future in-laws who just arrived in town, are the infamous Out-Laws.

• Tyler Spindel
• Evan Turner
• Adam Devine
• Pierce Brosnan
• Ellen Barkin
• 284 User reviews
• 62 Critic reviews
• 36 Metascore
• 1 nomination

Top cast 52

• Owen Browning

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• Lilly McDermott

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• Trivia In the opening scene, Owen is wearing shorts with long socks pulled up near his knees. This is to cover scars that Adam Devine has from being injured as a child.
• Goofs Despite the film being set in Philadelphia, the car chase scene where Owen tries to tail his fiance's parents shows a sign with a Georgia SR 10 sign and is ultimately stopped at the intersection of Ralph McGill Blvd - a major thoroughfare near downtown Atlanta.

Owen Browning : You MUST be Parker's dad, cuz you two kiss exactly the same.

• Connections Referenced in YellowFlash 2: FlashCast: Nerdrotic joins to talk Marvel and Cancel Pigs! Disney goes to WAR! Hollywood bankruptcy! (2023)
• Soundtracks Ain't That Love Written and Performed by Ray Charles Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp. By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

User reviews 284

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• Jul 15, 2023
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• July 7, 2023 (United States)
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• Official Netflix
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• Runtime 1 hour 35 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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‘The Out-Laws’ Review: Adam Devine, Funny at Last

Devine channels Jack Lemmon as a law-abiding Everyman whose fiancée’s parents rob the bank he manages. (Awkward.)

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By Glenn Kenny

You can really see Adam Devine going for the Jack Lemmon vibes in his latest vehicle, “The Out-Laws.” As Owen Browning, a tidy but slightly schlubby suburban Everyman with an impending wedding, he meets adversity with a broad grin and an implied ambition to ingratiate himself to the whole world. So a superficial Jack Lemmon vibe — except Jack Lemmon never twerked in boxer shorts. Not that he necessarily would have considered it beneath him.

In theory, Devine should be funny: He’s talented and game and has a decent supply of goofy shtick. This critic’s experience of his work, however, including the surprisingly bland “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” (2016) and the nearly unspeakable “Game Over, Man!” (2018) — like this production, also a Netflix picture — has been almost disturbingly laugh-free. Until now. “The Out-Laws,” directed by Tyler Spindel, is a slight comedy, but it’s also raucous and kickily violent, with several laugh-in-spite-of-your-better-judgment bits.

The hook is that Owen’s future in-laws, up until recently off the grid, are possibly the notorious criminals who rob the bank Owen manages shortly after they blow into town. The question doesn’t remain open for long. Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin play the parental units with unabashed, even unhinged, broadness, against which Devine’s haplessness really sings. Richard Kind and Julie Hagerty go to town as Owen’s brash parents. The comedic virtuosi Laci Mosley and Lil Rel Howery play Owen’s bank colleagues, and the early scene where they frankly admit that they initially thought Owen’s fiancée was imaginary is rich. (She’s not imaginary; Nina Dobrev plays her, and she’s fine in the movie’s most plain part.) In fairness to Devine, the watchability is not just the result of his being surrounded by a cast of aces; he genuinely commits to and sells his bit here.

The Out-Laws Rated R for violence and salty language, complete with almost endless sexual innuendo. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Netflix .

NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

The Outlaws review: Star-studded Stephen Merchant series is Walken in a comedy wonderland

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He’s been going about it quietly, but Stephen Merchant has been in the form of his life in recent years.

While former comedy partner Ricky Gervais has been making all the headlines (some good , plenty bad ), it’s Merchant who’s been putting out the most interesting work since they last worked together in 2013.

The excellent Fighting With My Family saw him step into the director’s chair to helm one the best British films of recent years. He also played Caliban in gritty superhero epic Logan, took on the role of Nazi Gestapo leader Captain Deertz in the Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit and co-created the delightfully daft Lip Sync Battle.

He’s back with a brand new British comedy series packed with star names, and it’s immediately clear that his purple patch isn’t over just yet.

Compulsive crime caper The Outlaws focuses on seven strangers thrown together to complete their community service, while a criminal gang threaten to throw them all into grave danger.

The likes of Eleanor Tomlinson, Darren Boyd, Clare Perkins, Richard E Grant, Jessica Gunning, Claes Bang, Nina Wadia and Ian McElhinney are all along for the ride and there’s also a little known actor by the name of Christopher Walken among the cast – yes, the Christopher Walken. The Hollywood legend takes centre stage in one of the most unexpected, but glorious bits of casting of the year so far.

He and Merchant strike up the unlikeliest of odd-couple dynamics in the first instalment of the series, with Merchant’s cringe-inducing comedy so familiar to the fans of Extras and the Office playing nicely off Walken’s wonderfully off-beat delivery. 

In fact, it’s worth tuning in just to see Walken being driven around Bristol with six other misfits in a shabby community bus. How did he get here? We have no idea, but we’re certainly not complaining.

He plays charismatic conman Frank who, thankfully, looks and sounds an awful lot like Walken in real life – after his attempt at Irish in Wild Mountain Thyme , we should be grateful he’s not trying out a Bristol accent here.

Elsewhere, Jessica Gunning shines as the belligerent officer in charge of whipping the titular outlaws into shape, while Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging’s Eleanor Tomlinson is excellent as the vacuous influencer and reality star Gabby. 

Merchant shares the gags around but saves a plenty for himself, bringing the kind of awkward comedy chops he’s shown throughout his whole career by the bucketload. One memorable moment from episode one sees him confuse a gang sign for Mr Spock’s Vulcan salute from Star Trek, bringing a deliciously uncomfortable energy to the fore.

The first episode is strongest when cracking wise rather than trying its hand at light cultural commentary, but the sharp script and the A-list performances in has set this up to be one of the strongest new comedies of 2021.

Episode one had us Walken in a cringe comedy wonderland. More of the same, please.

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The Outlaws episode one is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now. New episodes are released weekly on Mondays at 9pm.

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Parents' guide to, the out-laws.

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Common Sense Media Review

Crass humor, language, and violence in jumbled comedy.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Out-Laws ' starry cast gets into all kinds of dangerous situations in a film with both graphic and comedic violence as well as plenty of crude language and sexual references. When bank manager Owen's (Adam Devine) bank is robbed at gunpoint in the week leading up to his wedding, he…

Why Age 15+?

People are threatened and killed in shoot-outs and at point blank. There's blood

Couples kiss. An engaged couple talks dirty to one another and gets in bed toget

Language includes "f--k," "s--t," "damn," "goddamn," "hell," "ass," "bitch," "cr

Adults drink regularly and get drunk (one vomits as a result). There's mention o

People rob banks to pay off debts. Several car brands are seen.

Any Positive Content?

Owen would do anything for his fiancée, Parker, even putting himself in jeopardy

Good gender balance within the main cast. Two secondary characters, co-workers a

Love can make us do crazy things. The movie plays on crude and gross-out humor.

Violence & Scariness

People are threatened and killed in shoot-outs and at point blank. There's blood as well as fist fights, car chases, and crashes. A character takes another skydiving and waits an unnecessarily long time before opening the parachute. Dogs attack and bite someone. A worm crawls up someone's nose. There's mention of someone dying while masturbating and strangling themselves. Most of the violence is meant to be funny.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Couples kiss. An engaged couple talks dirty to one another and gets in bed together (one sits on top of the other). There's reference to and mimicking of masturbation. A character watches a video of dogs having intercourse. An older character mentions participating in orgies where you "f--k" everyone. References to "boinking," "f---ing," "getting pregnant," "blowing it real nice," "eating d--k," and being "hard."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes "f--k," "s--t," "damn," "goddamn," "hell," "ass," "bitch," "crap," "suck," "p---y," "d--k," "c--k," "t-ts," "wussy," "turd," "troll," "weird," "goober," "freak," and "idiot." "God" and "Jesus" used as exclamations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults drink regularly and get drunk (one vomits as a result). There's mention of taking a weed gummy, images of someone snorting cocaine, people smoking cigarettes, and jokes involving morphine and meth.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Positive role models.

Owen would do anything for his fiancée, Parker, even putting himself in jeopardy. Parker's parents, Billy and Lilly slowly realize this and come to appreciate his love for their daughter, though they play loosely with Owen's safety at first.

Diverse Representations

Good gender balance within the main cast. Two secondary characters, co-workers at a bank who offer the main character straight talk, are Black. A mobster is played by an actress of Indian heritage.

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Positive Messages

Parents need to know that The Out-Laws ' starry cast gets into all kinds of dangerous situations in a film with both graphic and comedic violence as well as plenty of crude language and sexual references. When bank manager Owen's ( Adam Devine ) bank is robbed at gunpoint in the week leading up to his wedding, he becomes convinced it's the work of his future in-laws, Billy ( Pierce Brosnan ) and Lilly ( Ellen Barkin ). People are threatened and killed in shoot-outs and at point blank, resulting in blood splatters. There are also fist fights, car chases, crashes, skydiving near-accidents, dog attacks, and mention of someone dying while masturbating and strangling himself. There is also mention of orgies, "eating d--k," "being hard," and other sexual references and language. An engaged couple talks dirty to one another before the the woman sits on top of the man in bed. Adults drink regularly and get drunk (one vomits as a result), and there's mention or scenes of people taking weed gummies, snorting cocaine, smoking cigarettes, and joking about morphine and meth. Language includes "f--k," "s--t," "bitch," "crap," "p---y," "c--k," "t-ts," and more. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (1)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Not a family movie but Adam Sandler humor abounds

Families stay away, what's the story.

In THE OUT-LAWS, Owen ( Adam Devine ) and Parker ( Nina Dobrev ) are about to be married. Owen's difficult parents, Neil ( Richard Kind ) and Margie ( Julie Hagerty ), are confirmed to attend when Parker's parents, Billy ( Pierce Brosnan ) and Lilly ( Ellen Barkin ), announce last-minute that they're coming as well. They swoop into town, intimidating bank manager Owen. When Owen's bank is robbed at gunpoint, he's convinced Billy and Lilly are behind the heist. Turns out he's right and they owe millions to gangster Rehan (Poorna Jagannathan).

Is It Any Good?

This Happy Madison production has Adam Sandler written all over it -- not a compliment in this case, as the cast of talents and funny premise are undermined by some of the Sandler-style antics. The Out-Laws lets the genuinely funny Devine and icons Brosnan and Barkin get overwhelmed by a mish-mash of gags and gross-outs. The film lands some laughs, mostly exploiting Devine's physical comedy and Brosnan's physical attractiveness (watch for the Bond reference). But the gratuitous violence and crass humor muddy the tone. Comic Kind is in especially good form as the nerdy dad, but Jagannathan, so sophisticated as the mom in Netflix's Never Have I Ever , is miscast as a heartless mobster.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in The Out-Laws . Mostly it's played for laughs, but it also gets bloody at times. Do you think the violence was funny in this film? Did it ever feel unnecessary to you?

The adults in this movie swear a lot and make regular crude references and gestures. How would the story or characters have changed if the writers took out the language and references?

How were drinking, smoking, and drugs portrayed? Were there consequences? Did it glamorize them?

How was sex discussed in the film? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.

Who do you think is the target audience for this film, and why?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : July 7, 2023
• Cast : Adam Devine , Pierce Brosnan , Nina Dobrev
• Director : Tyler Spindell
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 95 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language throughout, violence, sexual material and brief drug use
• Last updated : July 25, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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'The Out-Laws' Review: Netflix's Action-Comedy Is the Latest to Trap Good Actors in Bad Movie Purgatory

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Between My Big Fat Greek Wedding to Crazy Rich Asians , family comedies about meeting one’s in-laws might not have reinvented the scary, pressure-cooker experience so many undergo, but they undoubtedly set a high bar with their flawless charm. For years, studios have tried their hardest to resuscitate the classic comedy brimming with memorable one-liners and slapstick humor in a landscape of blockbuster franchises, yet nothing stands out on its own. Though many might fuel these comedies with star power, there is a whole roster of films that just fall short of their delivery, much like Netflix’s newest action-comedy, The Out-Laws . Starring Adam DeVine , Pierce Brosnan , Ellen Barkin, and Nina Dobrev , the 90-minute feature from Adam Sandler ’s Happy Madison is often laugh-out-loud but it falls victim to formulaic tropes and boilerplate writing that doesn’t add anything significant to the genre.

Boasting an incredible cast, rounded out brilliantly by Poorna Jagannathan , Michael Rooker , Richard Kind , Julie Hagerty, and Lil Rel Howery , the film looks promising on the surface. After all, it’s got everything an action-packed summer comedy should have as it attempts to put an intense spin on Meet the Parents . However, in brushing aside the humor, The Out-Laws becomes more involved in its efforts than the actual execution. This flattens many of the details that could potentially make it memorable. The movie takes some very hard turns and at times will go 100 miles per hour in a cul de sac, but not in a way that is natural to the absurdities grounded in reality.

RELATED: Pierce Brosnan Gets a Backhanded Compliment in 'The Out-Laws' Clip

'The Out-Laws' Escalates Quickly

With sitcom-like execution from director Tyler Spindel and a script by Ben Zazove and Evan Turner that asks too much of its cast, The Out-Laws stars DeVine as Owen Browning, a straight-laced bank manager about to marry the love of his life, Parker (Dobrev). However, throughout their entire relationship and time together, he hasn’t met her parents — as if that wasn’t a major red flag. It’s also one of the weird parts of the movie considering Owen’s personality is very by the book and that dynamic with Parker is unequivocally contradictory to who he is portrayed to be. Owen’s parents (played by Kind and Hagerty) soon encourage him to reach out to Parker’s parents ahead of the ceremony.

However, things take a major turn after Owen makes a phone call to a storage locker facility holding Parker’s belongings. As luck would have it, his soon-to-be-in-laws, Billy (Brosnan) and Lilly (Barkin) suddenly show up. Through some very brief interactions with Parker’s parents the night before and a moment that finds Owen drunk out of his mind spilling secrets about his bank, the hapless character is soon in the midst of a robbery masterminded by a pair of masked gunmen, believed to be the Ghost Bandits — a pair of notorious, high-tech thieves known for their elaborate robberies. As the robbery unfolds and Owen observes the situation carefully, he gets a feeling that Billy and Lilly might actually be behind the robbery and works his hardest to prove it. Unfortunately, along the way of his figuring things out and pinning them to the bank robbery, Parker gets kidnapped, which forces Owen to team up with her parents on a questionable crime spree to save her.

When it comes to the casting of The Out-Laws , the film employs some really solid talent that gives it their all. But it asks too much from them and it isn’t fair. Instead, what we get is a lopsided action-comedy with actors who can be really funny and lean into absurdities, but a storyline that is weak and at times uneven. With a permeating lack of substance, the cast is the only glue that binds this film together. DeVine, who currently stars in The Righteous Gemstones , is as always hilarious and manages to almost save the film with his boyish charm even if the script mismanages his talent. Reminiscent of Jim Carrey from the ‘90s mixed with real-world neuroticism, DeVine helps steer The Out-Laws to where it needs to be for an often enjoyable, hearty 90 minutes. His chemistry with everyone works quite well, particularly his interactions with Brosnan and Barkin.

Ellen Barkin and Pierce Brosnan are Underutilized in 'The Out-Laws'

The two veteran actors are at the top of their game with the material, offering some very sly, deadpan delivery that complements DeVine’s standup experience. But it also feels like Brosnan gets more growth and understanding than Barkin’s character, who is often left to the wayside much like Dobrev’s. Both women are incredible talents outside this film, but The Out-Laws doesn’t make much use of them. In how we see Brosnan grow irritated by DeVine and the two have some very funny scenes together, we don’t see a lot of that similar interaction with him or Dobrev. Again, this is reflective of a script that is imbalanced, particularly in its writing of women, and missing some crucial elements of a movie riffing on Meet the Parents .

Brosnan gets to shine a lot in this film, almost as much as DeVine. With the former James Bond actor dipping his toes in comedy and notably, being a big fan of the genre, he definitely elevates the writing as much as he can. There are some very funny scenes he shares with Kind that make the movie enjoyable. Kind’s history in comedy has paid off in this film as he knows exactly how to land a joke and with the blend of his personality and Hagerty’s, the two heighten the scenes they share and make for some laugh-out-loud moments. Fans can also expect an appearance from DeVine’s Workaholics co-star, Blake Anderson , as Owen’s goofy cousin. Of course, Owen is not without his own set of friends at work, including Howery as a bumbling security guard who wants to do anything but secure the area, and Laci Mosley as one of the bank tellers whose fierce sass sets the two in their place. Howery and Mosley bring a nice balance to DeVine’s uneasiness and manage to work with what they’re given.

Audiences will get a kick out of Rooker’s character, FBI agent Roger Oldham, who’s on the trail of the Ghost Bandits and manages to work with DeVine. Though his character falls into the age-old trope of “divorced detective wants his wife back,” he makes it work most comically and with timing that plays well to DeVine’s. Jagannathan as Rehan, the Ghost Bandits’ rival and Parker’s kidnapper does a great job and is one of the most underrated actresses of our time. While she is funny and creates some eccentric evil villain quirks, the female character again is not well fleshed out. In so many ways, she could have had a stronger personality being the movie’s main villain, but instead, she is very one-dimensional despite Jagannathan giving her everything. This is symptomatic and almost an extension of writing in the male gaze where women are not full figures. Rehan has the hots for Billy and makes lewd jokes about him. Meanwhile, Lauren Lapkus is a manager of a rival bank who orgasms at the opening of a vault she shows Owen. Sure, she is a fierce boss like Rehan, both at the top of their careers, respectively. But in these interactions, the men are tame and appear off-put by the behavior of a woman owning her sexuality and making her moves, reducing the comedy to being about the expectations of women in society who are still entrenched in societal norms.

'The Out-Laws' Is Another Misfire for Netflix

As Owen’s buttoned-up personality clashes with Billy and Lilly, The Out-Laws follows one of the more platitudinous premises that we’ve seen in countless wedding comedies. The script offers audiences nothing new in terms of mystery or suspense and relies too much on its tropes to lead the characters. In so many ways it feels redundant and pushes Netflix further into the twilight zone of straight-to-VOD comedies that has, in recent years, become an obscure purgatory for good actors in bad movies. By no means does The Out-Laws attempt to sit on par with Father of the Bride or Meet the Parents with their charming simplicity that strikes a nerve, but it still has its moments of heart, though they are few and far between.

Throughout the entire film, none of the characters evolve much, nor do their actions offer any depth. Instead, we are subjected to a lot of fluff to cover up these missteps and find ourselves in some very eccentric situations, like a wedding bakery shootout that features a very funny appearance from Betsy Sodoro and Jackie Sandler and an intense, jaw-dropping, car chase scene through a cemetery. The scene badly wants to recreate the Farrelly Brothers' style of comedy with its exaggerated irreverence at play, but it only works with DeVine’s sweaty and apologetic anxiety.

The Out-Laws has a workable premise with a great star-studded cast led by a sincere DeVine and is funny with great potential outside its humor. But it never hits the mark and only works in pieces due to recycled ideas and formulaic tropes across clichéd writing. The film works hard to be likable but it takes some heartbreakingly lazy turns that don’t elevate the story or its characters. Because of this, it’s hard to tell what the movie wants to be and just how far it can go with a basic premise.

Rating : C-

The Out-Laws is now streaming on Netflix.

The Out-Laws

The Out-Laws is a crime comedy film directed by Tyler Spindel. Adam Devine stars as Owen Browning, a bank manager whose life spirals into chaos when his in-laws, played by Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin, are suspected of robbing his bank on the weekend of his wedding. The film combines elements of heist and romance, exploring family ties under unexpected and humorous circumstances.

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The Outlaws series 3 review: Jessica Gunning is much more than Baby Reindeer

It centres around a dead body, but the final series of stephen merchant's bristol comedy is bursting with life.

It has been two years since the last series of The Outlaws , the comedy thriller about low-level lawbreakers who are thrown together on a community payback scheme and become embroiled with proper villains. So it speaks volumes about co-creator Stephen Merchant ’s vivid storytelling that the protagonists require little re-introduction. In fact, many of us have come to cherish them.

Nevertheless, the new series does offer a handy recap. In their time away, bug-eyed Bristolian solicitor Greg (Merchant) had found the courage to quit his thankless job; substance-abusing influencer Lady Gabriella ( Eleanor Tomlinson ) had entered rehab; right-wing blowhard John and leftie activist Myrna (Darren Boyd and Clare Perkins) had – predictably – found some common ground; and young lovers Ben and Rani (Gamba Cole and Rhianne Barreto) had – less predictably – gone their separate ways (Ben to his new beachside food shack in Weston-Super-Mare, Rani back to London in a stolen sports car).

The only character missing from the new series is American grifter Frank, the 81-year-old Christopher Walken perhaps understandably unwilling to repeat an arduous shoot in Bristol. The Oscar-winning Deer Hunter actor may have provided some bona fide Hollywood star power to earlier series, but never mind, now the celebrity charm comes from Jessica Gunning, whose career is going stratospheric thanks to her role as stalker Martha in Netflix’s global hit Baby Reindeer .

Gunning’s officious supervisor Diane is deluded (albeit obviously not in the same league as Martha, and in a more benign, comical way) as she continues to believe in her powers of detection. She is now a fully-fledged Police Community Support Officer and even has a new underling, an amusingly camp trainee called Stan (Harry Trevaldwyn) who hangs on Diane’s every word. “My protégé,” she calls him. “It’s the French word for minion.”

Jilly Cooper's Rivals is a bonk-fest. Disney shouldn't have touched it

The first two series were filmed back-to-back and came to what could have been a satisfactory conclusion. This is then something of a back-by-popular-demand sequel, requiring some expository dialogue and a couple of flashbacks. But it’s all handled deftly enough and, before long, it’s business as usual in Bristol.

With the gang having outwitted drugs boss “The Dean” (Claes Bang) by getting him arrested after secreting 10 kilos of cocaine into the boot of his car, Merchant and his team of writers had two problems facing them in their third outing. How were they going to set each character on a new journey and – more importantly – how would they inject some fresh jeopardy into their lives?

The latter answer comes in the form of that familiar trope in comedy thrillers – a pesky dead body and how to dispose of it. The cadaver in question belongs to one of Tthe Dean’s henchmen, but it would be a spoiler to say more.

Well, John sues his dad for workplace bullying, Lady Gabby is in a hurry to have a baby and Myrna has a second chance at love with an old beau (played by Patrick Robinson). Meanwhile, Ben has a new girlfriend, their tentative relationship muddied by the sudden reappearance of heart-breaker Rani. That’s surely enough to be getting on with.

The Outlaws is an ensemble show and works best when the gang are bouncing off each other, but any scene involving Merchant or Gunning is comedy gold. Diane is still hopelessly striving to become a one-woman Cagney and Lacey , while Greg is now self-employed and working from home (complete with besuited upper body and pyjama bottoms).

Any comedy-thriller, however, requires a fine balance between the two genres. And while you don’t co-author this century’s most influential sitcom, The Office , without knowing how to craft a gag or two, what is perhaps more impressive here is the thought that’s gone into the mechanics of the thriller. And with The Dean detained while awaiting trial, a threatening new villain is required to do the footwork. Enter Ricky Grover ( EastEnders ‘ Andrew Cotton), who is great fun as a bent copper with a gleefully cynical sense of humour.

Merchant has intimated that this will be the final series of The Outlaws . Having binged all five episodes, it’s clear that it is the right decision – the characters have nowhere else to go and Merchant has written his creation to a full stop. So, enjoy them while you can. This final series may centre around a dead body but, once again, the action is bursting with life.

‘The Outlaws’ series 3 is streaming on BBC iPlayer and will be on BBC One at 9pm tonight.

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‘The Out-Laws’ movie review: Adam Devine, Pierce Brosnan’s comedy is partly funny but wholly forgettable

While you naturally grow a likeness to a film that throws a joke every 30 seconds, it’s a buzzkill that there is hardly anything worth remembering in a film that even has a high-speed car chase in a cemetery.

Updated - July 08, 2023 12:03 pm IST

Adam Devine, Nina Dobrev, Ellen Barkin, and Pierce Brosnan in a still from ‘The Out-Laws’ | Photo Credit: Netflix

Maybe it’s the studios restraining from taking risks post-pandemic why pocket-sized, harmless popcorn comedies like The Out-Laws seem few and far between. So though you have only half a smile during the closing credits of The Out-Laws , you can’t help but think maybe such fun, even if forgettable, affairs are necessary more often than we think.

Adam Devine, in a caricaturish role that lends him many easy jokes, plays the clumsy, scaredy-cat doofus of a bank manager Owen Browning who is about to get married to his girlfriend Parker McDermott (Nina Dobrev). Owen’s parents - conservative and old-school Neil and Margie Browning (Richard Kind and Julie Hagerty) - have an issue with Parker’s profession as a yoga teacher, and with her parents, Billy and Lilly McDermott (Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin), being away from Parker so much for mysterious reasons. Parker’s parents, meanwhile, are a groovy, hipster couple who try to make do with their daughter’s choice, and Owen’s charms get lost in them.

The Out-Laws (English)

Things take quite a turn when Owen’s bank is robbed, and he has enough reasons to suspect Parker’s parents to be the robbers — like Billy’s strong and distinct cologne, Lilly’s signature fighting move, and him having only told them the unique password to the bank’s hi-tech vault. FBI officer Oldham (Michael Rooker) enters the scene to inform Owen that the robbers are the infamous Ghost Bandits, and Owen’s world spins into misery. Thrown into the mix is Rehan Zakaryan ( Never Have I Ever’s Poorna Jagannathan in a short but fantastic role), a rich-brat criminal who has a beef with the Ghost Bandits.

The spread looks delicious, and there are enough scenarios that offer space for good comedy, like an awkward lunch between the families or an action sequence that involves Owen dressed as Shrek. At the same time, it squanders its overall appeal with scenes written for silly jokes and cheap thrills, like the one set at Rehan’s bungalow.

For all its promises to compensate for its predictability, The Out-Laws only leaves you with some good quips from characters having unhinged fun. It clutches so much on humour that you are asked to oversee the loopholes and the lack of any character development. Adding woes is the criminal underutilisation of actors like Dobrev and Rooker. A poorly-staged climax set at a bank is the final straw. The ending leaves too many doors ajar, and while it’s sometimes okay for mindless entertainment to not cross some t’s, you at least wish for its seemingly-human characters to have those natural human responses and reactions.

What The Out-Laws strives to do with its treatment is fine — and you naturally grow a likeness to a film that throws a joke every 30 seconds — but it’s quite a buzzkill to realise that despite boasting something as insane as a high-speed car chase in a cemetery, you might remember the film only for reminding you of the state of its sub-genre. Or that Pierce Brosnan has still got it at 70.

The Out-Laws is currently streaming on Netflix

Published - July 08, 2023 12:02 pm IST

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The Out-Laws review: Vampire Diaries star's Netflix comedy only offers soft laughs

Not even Adam DeVine's enthusiasm can save this.

Netflix 's The Out-Laws is what would happen if Meet the Parents was a heist movie directed by the Farrelly brothers. However, not even Adam DeVine's devoted commitment to his comedic craft or Pierce Brosnan's star presence could save this film from irrelevance.

Produced by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions and directed by Tyler Spindel ( The Wrong Missy ), the movie plays into the action-comedy genre with a universally recognised terrifying moment placed at its centre: meeting your partner's parents.

Pitch Perfect 's Adam Devine plays Owen Browning, a bank manager who is about to get married to his long-time girlfriend Parker McDermott ( The Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev ). When his bank gets robbed by the infamous criminal duo The Ghost Bandits right after the unexpected arrival of Parker's estranged parents (played by Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin), Owen starts to suspect his future in-laws had something to do with it.

While the highly ineffective detective Roger Oldham ( Guardians of the Galaxy 's Michael Rooker) tries to find answers to the robbery, and criminal Rehan ( Never Have I Ever 's Poorna Jagannathan) causes mayhem in the shadows, Owen tries to find the truth about Parker's mysterious family.

If we're being honest, whether you enjoy this movie or not might entirely depend on how much you love or hate Adam Devine's comedic personality.

The actor is at his most extreme in this movie, displaying his hysterical physicality at every opportunity. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes simply obnoxious, The Righteous Gemstones actor remains true to his over-the-top manners and his nerdy-but-endearing archetype.

DeVine is no stranger to Netflix comedies, having starred in the disappointing Game Over, Man! and When We First Met , as well as in the noteworthy Isn't It Romantic alongside Pitch Perfect colleague Rebel Wilson .

With The Out-Laws , the actor stays in his comfort zone, which doesn't totally pay off this time.

Still, there's fun to be had with some of the lines and scenes of The Out-Laws , despite its evident flaws.

Richard Kind as Owen's loud and unfiltered father is absolutely hilarious, and Julie Hagerty as Owen's soft-spoken mother, who thinks being a yoga teacher is the same as being a stripper, offers the perfect balance for the couple as a comedic duo of their own.

Pierce Brosnan having fun whenever he can and making jokes about James Bond is also a positive point for the movie, as well as Lauren Lapus' horny bank manager and DeVine in a Shrek costume trying to land a dreadful Scottish accent.

The movie is at its best when it trusts its stars to bring the charisma and slapstick vibes.

However, every spark of brilliance is ultimately buried under unoriginal settings, bad dialogue, two-dimensional character arcs and a painful waste of talent.

The movie fails at being a truly funny comedy as well as an intense action flick, staying instead in a limbo with no allure and seriously lacking creativity. Somehow, Netflix keeps piling up these kinds of inconsequential comedies that fail to make use of a remarkable cast and occasionally promising ideas.

If everybody in The Out-Laws had been as pumped up as DeVine, maybe the outcome would have been different. Instead, there's nothing more than a night of very soft laughs.

The Out-Laws is available on Netflix.

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Deputy Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over seven years, mostly for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas . 

Her work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema in the UK. 

She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service .    During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world, and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London.     Now based in the UK, Mireia joined Digital Spy in June 2023 as Deputy Movies Editor. 

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The Outlaws: Season 2 Reviews

The second season of The Outlaws is a mildly enjoyable caper at its best when Stephen Merchant and Jessica Gunning are on screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 3, 2023

If it was just that bit shorter it would be a bit punchier.

Full Review | Original Score: Not a Must Watch | Sep 26, 2022

Stephen Merchant’s The Outlaws pulls off a nearly seamless switch from comedy to crime drama with comedic elements.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2022

As before the grittier moments can jar, but Merchant’s cringe-character Greg, Christopher Walken’s wiseguy Frank and Eleanor Tomlinson’s fragile influencer Gabby remain a hoot...

Full Review | Aug 5, 2022

Season 2 of The Outlaws delivers an increasingly tense, fast-paced conclusion to the lead characters’ saga that’s lighter on laughs but filled with strong performances and smart twists.

Full Review | Aug 3, 2022

Just as charming and satisfyingly offbeat as the first time around, The Outlaws: Season 2 continues to play to its strengths to deliver some criminally good times.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 27, 2022

... Firing on all cylinders and teeming with quality awkwardness and filth.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 9, 2022

The comedy in The Outlaws is too broad, the action too brutal, the sentiment too soupy and the dialogue too scatalogical.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 9, 2022

Merchant and co have taken similar care with this glinting crown jewel.

Merchant’s tolerant compassion for his diverse creations is evident and, of course, he makes them funny.