THE OUT-LAWS - Mark Reviews Movies

The Out-Laws, Netflix

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 7, 2023

From a sitcom setup about a guy meeting his significant other's parents for the first time, The Out-Laws devolves quickly and increasingly into irritation. It's almost impressive how Evan Turner and Ben Zazove's screenplay finds new ways of not being funny within such a simplistic framework—except that, you know, the whole thing is dependent on its jokes. The only impressive thing of any real note is how many talented people the filmmakers have tricked into participating in this mess.

The jury, perhaps, is still out on the ability of star Adam Devine to be a comedic leading man, but the evidence here makes him the one obvious exception to that statement of the general talent of the cast. He plays Owen, a dull and bland manager of a local bank who has somehow convinced Parker (Nina Dobrev) to marry him. It's a good thing that his fiancée exists in this story more as a plot device than anything else, lest we really have to start trying to figure out what would make this guy appealing to a generally successful yoga instructor.

As an actor, Devine is a handful, in that he seems desperate for attention at any given moment, and the role of the cowardly and persnickety man-child Owen gives him every opportunity to steal as much attention as possible away from everyone and everything else on screen. Devine takes advantage of that by goofing around, stating the obvious, and screaming in such a way that might be considered cruel and unusual, should this movie ever find its way of being shown at an institution for incarceration.

It's an obnoxious performance. The shame of it, too, is that the annoyance overshadows a lot of other actors, who are usually trying their best to be odd or off-kilter in less flashy and more believable ways.

Take Owen's parents, played by comedy veterans Richard Kind and Julie Hagerty. These two intrinsically know it's much funnier not to try to be funny, and that at least makes their bumbling, forgetful characters an actual joke, instead of a forceful attempt at one. To be clear, Turner and Zazove definitely try to force the jokes upon the two, particularly when a Hagerty's drunken Margie reveals to a couple of relative strangers—as well as her son and future daughter-in-law—that she has participated in a few orgies in her past, but the embarrassment of such an awkwardly random joke is entirely on the filmmakers' part.

The strangers are Parker's parents Billy (Pierce Brosnan) and Lilly (Ellen Barkin), who surprise the soon-to-be married couple—Owen, specifically—by breaking into their house and overhearing their future son-in-law singing about having sex with their daughter. The two are adventurous, opting for a skydiving expedition and getting tattoos with Owen instead of visiting a Holocaust museum as he planned. The specificity of that joke feels in bad taste, although it's difficult to determine why—mostly because so many of the gags here come across as inexplicable in the first place.

The plot—and there is a lot of one for something that seems to be throwing so many random things into its comedy mix without much thought—has a pair of robbers stealing from Owen's bank. He's convinced Billy and Lilly are the thieves, but any potential battle of wits between the two parties is quickly undone by the revelation that they are indeed the infamous robbers, the introduction of a personally ruined FBI agent (played by Michael Rooker) who's determined to catch them, and the emergence of sociopathic crime boss Rehan (Poorna Jagannathan), who wants $6 million from the couple for repayment of a debt.

All of it eventually leads Owen to have to help his future in-laws rob a bank or two, which results in some unconvincing action, orchestrated by director Tyler Spindel with some tonally divergent moments of bloody violence and a destructive chase through a cemetery. Brosnan and Barkin do what they can with these roles, with the former bringing some sinister charm to Billy (Barkin, like her on-screen daughter, is treated as a second or third thought). Even they seem stymied by the heavy plotting and overwhelmed by Devine's presence, with his loud screaming almost surpassed in terms of a befuddling choice for a running joke by having Owen disguise himself as his favorite cartoon ogre.

More actors—such as Lil Rel Howery and Lauren Lapkus, playing a character so intentionally grating that the movie's otherwise dismissive treatment of women comes across as a less offensive decision—try and fail to do something with The Out-Laws. It's all in vain and, under the circumstances, rather dispiriting.

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