The Out-Laws

Available on Netflix.

Adam Devine stars and Tyler Spindel directs this action comedy. Owen (Devine) is manager of a small regional bank about to marry his love Parker (Nina Dobrev). What seems like initially welcome news, that Parker’s parents (Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin) can make it to the wedding, soon turns into an unexpected problem! The problem comes when Owen’s bank is robbed by the “Ghost Bandits” who Owen quickly believes to be Parker’s parents. This leads to kidnappings, police chases, further heists, shoot outs and more as Owen tries to fix the problems the robbery at his bank created.

This is a very predictable, sometimes misjudged, sometimes funny, straight to streaming action comedy. I often don’t hold out too much hope for straight to Netflix comedies so expectations tend to be low and this just about met them

Devine does the thing he’s known for, that awkward yet strangely over confident character. But he’s overshadowed by Barkin, who shows a flair for action and Brosnan, who flexes his comedy muscles well, if you look past his oddly uneven Irish accent. There are a couple of good supporting roles too from Poorna Jagannathan as mobster Rehan and Lauren Lapkus’s overly cocky bank manager.

But the film is very uneven, and only funny in patches. It’s very predictable, there is some misjudged stuff (a particularly destructive scene in a cemetery) and even at just 95 minutes it does occasionally drag. On the plus side, there are some entertaining action set pieces and there also some solid laugh out loud moments. But ultimately it’s all just a bit meh.

The Out-Laws is the definition of a straight to Netflix comedy. It has its moments, but not enough. It does have some solid action set pieces and is probably worth it for Brosnan and Ellen Barkin. Although at only 95 minutes long it doesn’t overly outstay its welcome. I came in with low expectations and this just about met them.