THE OUT-LAWS

Name: THE OUT-LAWS
Item: THE OUT-LAWS
Author: Cooper Dowd

"Funny, but Excessive in Too Many Places"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

THE OUT-LAWS is a raucous action comedy on Netflix. It follows the comic misadventures of a manic goofball named Owen, the manager of a small Los Angeles bank who finds joy in nerdy things. Owen is engaged to be married to Parker, a yoga instructor, in one week, but Owen has never met the bride’s parents, who happen to be notorious bank robbers. They rob Owen’s bank after he inadvertently gives them info about its security measures. Then, Owen has to help them steal $5 million when a ruthless rival threatens their daughter, Owen’s future wife.

Highly original and fast-moving, with lots of laughs, THE OUT-LAWS delivers a breezy piece of entertainment. The cast, which includes Pierce Brosnan as the future father-in-law, delivers fun performances. THE OUT-LAWS has a light moral worldview about protecting loved one and promoting marriage. However, it’s marred by pagan, immoral behavior. For example, THE OUT-LAWS has lots of strong foul language, many lewd jokes and references, two graphic shootings, and some drug humor. The movie’s amount of objectionable content is excessive, so media-wise viewers should avoid it.

Content:

(B, PaPa, AP, FR, LLL, VVV, SS, AA, DD, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Light moral worldview mixed with pagan elements focuses on a bank manager who helps his future in-laws commit major bank robberies in order to save the life of their daughter, who has been kidnapped, but they have a totally cavalier disregard for the law, and the lead’s future wife is a yoga instructor

Foul Language:

At least 81 obscenities (about half or more are “f” words), four strong Jesus profanities, three light profanities, and a drunken character is shown vomiting profusely four times comically

Violence:

Some extreme violence with blood spraying when villains twice shoot other villains in the head, plus lots of strong action violence such as numerous shootouts with several people killed as a result, several hand to hand combat scenes (some with the antihero bank robbers throwing police around but not graphic), and a huge car chases destroys several police cars and ends up in a cemetery, knocking over dozens of headstones

Sex:

Implied sex scene between engaged couple, multiple crude verbal references to sexual behaviors, some strong, and man watches video of two dogs mating

Nudity:

No nudity Alcohol: An extended scene of a lead character drinking to excess and divulging secret bank vault information, and he’s later seen vomiting four different times

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking but there are sometimes comical references to marijuana, cocaine and morphine; and, Miscellaneous: The lead character gleefully takes part in robberies of other banks despite being a bank manager, but he’s trying to save his fiancée, who’s been kidnapped by a thug demanding millions of dollars.

More Detail:

THE OUT-LAWS is the latest wacky comedy from Adam Sandler’s production company Happy Madison. Streaming on Netflix, the action comedy follows the misadventures of a manic goofball named Owen and played by Adam Devine, who’s the manager of a small Los Angeles bank and finds joy in all types of nerdy things. Owen is engaged to Parker (Nina Dobrev), a yoga teacher. The wedding is only a week away, but Owen has never met Parker’s parents, who are bank robbers. Highly original and fast-moving with lots of laughs, THE OUT-LAWS delivers a breezy piece of entertainment, but its negative content, which includes frequent foul language, sexual jokes and some comedy about alcohol and drugs, is excessive.

Parker’s parents, Billy (Pierce Brosnan) and Lily (Ellen Barkin), suddenly appear and brashly introduce themselves with dodgy tales of having lived the past several years in South America. Owen’s parents are extremely wary of Billy and Lily. They try to warn him that something seems off about them. However, Owen is filled with boyish enthusiasm for everything and everyone he encounters. So, he lets them take him out for drinks, where they get him so drunk he winds up vomiting later.

The next day, Owen’s bank is robbed by masked thieves who know how to beat all the high-tech security in his bank vault. Shocked by the successful robbery, Owen has an embarrassing realization that he told Billy and Lily everything about his bank while he was drunk.

Owen is convinced that Parker’s parents are notorious for being the biggest heist thieves in the country, but Parker scoffs at the idea. However, Billy and Lily tell Owen they have to steal $5 million within the next two days or face consequences from a more sinister enemy villain, who’s threatened Parker’s life. Owen thinks that helping his future in-laws is a great way to impress them and help Parker, who doesn’t know about the threats.

Every time Owen attempts to make a criminal move, however, his clumsiness and stupidity create bigger and bigger problems.

Will he and his future in-laws pull off the heist and save themselves from death at the hand of their enemy? Or, will Owen cause everything to fall apart?

Highly original and fast-moving, with lots of laughs, THE OUT-LAWS delivers a breezy piece of entertainment to viewers. THE OUT-LAWS has a great deal of strong foul language and many lewd jokes about sex. However, the trailer’s over-the-top silliness might lead lax parents to think THE OUT-LAWS is suitable fare for older children, which it’s not.

The movie is extremely funny much of the time, especially for viewers who are fans of silly Adam Sandler comedies like HAPPY GILMORE. Lead actor Adam Devine as Owen has non-stop energy and an anarchic comedy style that leaves viewers wondering what disaster he’s going to create next.

Pierce Brosnan as Billy has a great deal of fun playing a bad guy after his four movies as James Bond (and the movie features a funny inside joke about that role). His mix of roguish charm and comic menace makes him shine in a rare comedic turn, and he and Ellen Barkin as his wife have a sparky chemistry between them.

Comic acting veterans Richard Kind and Julie Hagerty are a riot as Owen’s much more straight-laced parents, who are constantly aghast at what their son done. Also, Michael Rooker (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY) as a hard-nosed FBI agent brings quite a few laughs as well.

Director Tyler Spindel stages an amazing police chase in the movie that includes a wild segment in a crowded cemetery. He also expertly balances the movie’s action and comedy aspects.

The one downside to THE OUT-LAWS as quality entertainment is that the final heist depends on a staggeringly dumb plot twist, and this time it’s not dumb in a fun way. This perhaps can be partially forgiven because the movie has long before set an anything-goes tone to its storyline.

A bigger problem is the movie’s worldview content, where banks are robbed cavalierly, police are thrown around by the trio of robbers, and no real consequences result from their actions. However, the comic protagonists are trying to save the life of the comic hero’s bride, and the career bank robbers eventually give themselves up to the FBI. Also, it’s clear in the movie that both crops of parents care about their children, and the hero finally earns the respect and admiration of his future father-in-law.

However, THE OUT-LAWS has lots of strong foul language and many sexual jokes, so media-wise viewers should avoid it. This negative, objectionable content, coupled with two excessive point-blank shootings, some comical drug references and a comical scene about getting drunk, is excessive. THE OUT-LAWS could have been a much better movie, accessible to more Netflix viewers, if it had deleted the worst of this objectionable content and aimed for a PG-13 or even a PG rating.

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Quality:

- Content: -3