‘The Out-Laws’ Review: A Good Cast Can’t Save the Year’s Unfunniest Film
Despite assured performances from Pierce Brosnan, Ellen Barkin, Richard Kind, Julie Hagerty and Michael Rooker, The Out-Laws is the year’s most irritating and unfunniest movie.
I have no idea what’s going on with Happy Madison Productions these days, but when the logo appeared on screen during the opening moments of Tyler Spindel’s The Out-Laws, I uttered, “Oh no…” Being completely unaware of this film’s existence until about a week ago, with the sole knowledge that Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin would play bank robbers, my soul was immediately crushed when the Happy Madison golf ball appeared. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Brosnan in a straight-up action movie (not counting 2021’s Black Adam, which saw him play Doctor Fate) other than the James Bond movies. He’s certainly the best part of the movie but gets consistently overshadowed by Adam DeVine’s career-worst performance as Owen Browning, a bank manager ready to marry the love of his life, Parker McDermott (Nina Dobrev), in a week from now.
The couple is in their final preparations until Parker receives the surprising call that their reclusive parents, Billy (Brosnan) and Lilly (Barkin), will make it to the wedding. Shortly after they arrive in town, Owen’s bank gets robbed by a duo known as “The Ghost Bandits,” two of the most legendary bank robbers in history. Owen immediately suspects that Billy and Lilly are behind the stint, even if Parker doesn’t believe it, but she gets abducted by Rehan Zakaryan (Poorna Jagannathan), the mastermind behind the “Ghost Bandit” operation who wants $5 million in two days, or Parker gets killed. Owen is then forced to team up with Billy and Lilly, who, predictably, hate his guts to pull off one of the biggest bank heists this town has ever seen.
The plot itself is fine, albeit a bit uninspired. Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Trilogy is right there if you’re looking for an improbable heist movie to watch over the weekend. What irked me the most in The Out-Laws was how poor its execution was, from the action scenes to the terribly-written comedy and lead performance. Let’s start with the action: there isn’t a single memorable setpiece in The Out-Laws. The shootouts and car chases are competently shot but lack the energy and verve that could make it stand out amongst the pack of heist comedies. The film consistently misses the opportunity to integrate physical comedy into its R-rated action, but it instead separates the two and never does anything of note with any of its comedic moments and medium-sized action scenes.
One could say the film’s core car chase is “comedic” in a way, but the jokes are in terrible taste: Owen dressed as Shrek (don’t ask), drives an armored car through a cemetery, hits all of the tombs and graveyards, whilst also hitting a casket, going right in the hole, to which Owen reacts with “Goal!” There’s nothing funny about any of this: it’s crass and puts two of Hollywood’s most iconic actors (Brosnan and Barkin) inside a pitifully embarrassing situation they don’t deserve to be in. The rest of the comedy is also unremarkable and irritating. DeVine consistently shrieks through most of his performance, whether cosplayed as Shrek while trying to perform a botched heist or when he rides with Billy and Lilly from the window of the car with his feet up. He’s seen better days in movies like Pitch Perfect and even Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, where his style of comedy worked better there than in The Out-Laws. There’s nothing funny about continually screaming your guts out throughout most of the movie without an actual point in mind.
Through Adam McKay’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Step Brothers, Steve Carell and Will Ferrell were the funniest actors who nailed the screaming aspect in comedies. They understand how (and why) a yell will make the audience laugh if used on the right occasion and never stretch it to the point where the joke wears itself thin fast. The Out-Laws puts DeVine in two bank robberies where he yells for most of the sequence, a parachute scene where he screams his guts out, and the most exasperating car ride you’ll ever see in any movie this year.
None of these scenes are funny because the lead actor doesn’t understand why he has to yell and what will make it funny. That could be due in part to Evan Turner and Ben Zazove’s script, which never gives a compelling reason for DeVine to yell out like this, or maybe it’s to tune out the fact that the film has nothing of interest going for, despite semi-decent performances from the actor who portray Owen and Parker’s parents. Brosnan and Barkin seem to have fun, particularly during a moment where they reference James Bond and cheekily remark that #5 (Brosnan’s Bond) was “a good one.” Apparently, the line was improvised by both Brosnan and Barkin, and it’s the most inspiring thing this movie has ever seen.
Brosnan has never lost his Bond action-movie charms and translates them here with his semi-referential portrayal of Billy, alongside decent chemistry with Barkin. Richard Kind and Julie Hagerty are also quite fun to watch as Owen’s parents, but that’s only because they are seasoned actors and always like to have fun with any material they work with. Hagerty always shines in anything she’s in, despite having recently starred in a stint of enjoyable, albeit forgettable, pieces of work, post-Marriage Story. I also enjoyed Michael Rooker as a clueless FBI agent, but that’s also because Rooker is great in anything he’s in and always brings his A-game, no matter what.
Seasoned veterans know what they’re doing, despite fully realizing they’re in one of the most embarrassing movies of their careers. You can’t blame them for wanting to have an easy paycheck. Their career will go by unscathed, but I’m not sure DeVine will come out of this one with studios eager to sign him again for another project. It is hands down the most humiliating thing he’s ever done, which says a lot, considering that he’s starred in some dull comedies over the years. But there’s one silver lining with his past roles: they weren’t as bad as what he did in The Out-Laws, the worst comedy of the year.