The Out-Laws is the latest action comedy film released on Netflix with a star-studded cast. It is directed by Tyler Spindel and the screenplay is written by Evan Turner and Ben Zazove. With a runtime of about 1 hour and 35 minutes, it is produced by Adam Sandler, Adam DeVine, and Allen Covert.
The ensemble cast of the film includes Adam DeVine as Owen, Pierce Brosnan as Billy McDermott, Ellen Barkin as Lilly McDermott, Nina Dobrev as Parker, Michael Rooker as Roger Oldham, Poorna Jagannathan as Rehan, Julie Hagerty as Margie, Richard Kind as Neil, Lil Rel Howery as Tyree, Blake Anderson as RJ, Lauren Lapkus as Phoebe King and Laci Mosley as Marisol.
The Out-Laws Review
The story follows Owen Browning who is preparing to get married in a few days and gets the news that his girlfriend, Parker’s parents have agreed to come to the wedding. They are said to be living in the Amazon with the Yanomami tribe and thus were hard to make a connection with. On the other hand, Owen and Parker are an ordinary couple. Owen is a bank manager while Parker is a yoga instructor. The trouble knocks on their perfect dainty life when his in-laws, Billy and Lilly turn up a few days before the wedding.
Owen goes out of his way to connect with seemingly cool but closed-off in-laws. Until the next day, his bank is robbed by the infamous Ghost Bandits, who seem to know all about the high-end security that Owen had set up personally.
While complying with all their demands, Owen realises that the robbers resemble so much like his in-laws and decides to gather enough evidence to prove to Parker. However, it wouldn’t be an action film without a bad guy, in this case, a fake accented Poorna Jagannathan as Rehan, to whom Billy and Lilly owe 5 million dollars in exchange for everyone’s apple of the eye – Parker.
Adam DeVine has established himself in the comedy genre films quite impeccably. And brings the same to this film. For example, when the scene requires slapstick comedy, DeVine never makes it feel over the top or too animated. It’s like the ‘Goofy but secretly smart boyfriend’ character runs in his blood. On a side note, the slapstick scenes felt quite similar to the 90s comedies and the reason behind it could be Adam Sandler’s association with the film as a producer.
Along with Owen is Parker, played by Nina Dobrev who brings her ‘naive girlfriend’ act but doesn’t really add much to the story development. But her parents do steal the complete show. It’s strange to see people treat Pierce Brosnan’s character exactly how anyone would on meeting the actual star. Seems like the dialogue writers took inspiration from fan interaction tweets that vividly describe how Brosnan smells like. Brosnan and Ellen Barkin exude the cool couple vibe without even trying to and it works in the favour of their criminal characters.
At first, there’s some iffiness about DeVine, Brosnan and Barkin’s chemistry with each other. As the story develops, the trio come up on the same page and imminent chaos unleashes. The good thing about this comedy film is the absence of an overly dramatic and hyperventilating character who would pass out at every new revelation. Even Parker is so nonchalant about her parents being the robbers and that’s a plus point of the film, which doesn’t go overboard with crazy/annoying shenanigans in the name of comedy.
One unnecessary detail was Rehan’s fake accent. I mean the actress already has an accent and to mix in some Latino(ish) tone into it just distracts. She could be shown as brutal or dangerous without linguistic pretence. Apart from that, it’s a light-hearted comedy that will entertain you just right.
Rating: 3.5/5
The Out-Laws is currently streaming on Netflix.
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