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“The Outsider” revolves around a British military contractor who is told that his daughter is dead. When he arrives in Los Angeles and discovers the body is not hers, he begins an investigation.
For the longest time, people assumed that if a movie went straight to DVD, that it wasn’t any good. Granted, back in the 80s and 90s when VHS was still around, this was pretty much the case. Over the last fifteen years or so, that began to change, especially for independent filmmakers. It was cheaper to release their movie onto DVD because people were getting sick and tired of the increase in admission prices to movie theatres along with popcorn and snacks and more and more people were choosing to stay at home. Today, a lot of films, many of them big-budget movies with big-name stars, are going to DVD and VOD first because there’s a bigger demand for them. With “The Outsider”, the case can be made that just because it went straight to DVD, it’s a bad movie. But it’s not. It’s actually a pretty damn good movie.
Lex Walker (Craig Fairbrass) is a British military contractor in the middle east who is informed that his daughter was found dead in Los Angeles. He flies to America but when he gets to L.A. and identifies the body, he informs the authorities that it is not his daughter. He makes his way to her last known address and finds it in disarray. He checks her phone and calls the last number dialed from there and it is that of a very shady Mr. Schuuster (James Caan). Walker arrives at Schuuster’s office unannounced and after forcing his way in, he tells him that he just wants to know where his daughter is but Schuuster isn’t talking.
After he is escorted outside by security for disrupting the establishment, he begins his own investigation and leaves a trail of dead bodies everywhere he goes. Detective Klein (Jason Patric) is hot on his trail but soon after, Walker locates his daughter Sam (Melissa Ordway) and she tells him that in working for Schuuster, she found out about many of his illegal dealings, including some connections with bigwigs in City Hall and that’s why he wants her dead. Instead of waiting for them to come for her, the duo, aided by some of Sam’s friends, decide to take the fight to Schuuster’s door.
After the critical and commercial success of “Taken”, where Liam Neeson cracked skulls and broke bones as he searched for his kidnapped daughter, you can almost envision Fairbrass embodying Neeson as he too, will stop at nothing to protect his daughter. “The Outsider” offers nothing new in terms of action movies but I do give kudos to director Brian A. Miller for assembling a good cast and for at least keeping the action old-school, with no apparent use of CGI.
Fairbrass has never been the greatest actor but he does have a certain amount of charisma in the tradition of Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris of yore and in this sort of movie, that’s enough for me. Caan plays his bad guy role with relish and proves that even at 73 years of age, he still has what it takes to make you despise him. I hadn’t seen Jason Patric in some time but it was good watching him again in a decent role. If you just want an hour and a half of old-fashioned action and fighting, this one’s for you!
In stores March 11th
