Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2531 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-07-09
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 101 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Outlaw is no easy film, with no easy answers. The latest from writer/director Nick Love, previously behind The Football Factory and The Business, it tells the story of a Britain overrun with crime, with no one willing to stand up to it.

Until, that is, a group of people--led by Sean Bean's Bryant--decide to effectively take matters into their own hands. And so, with each of this group having their own reasons for their actions, they start to exact a form of revenge on the those who have wronged them, laying the scene for an interesting vigilante crime-thriller.

Amidst a fair cavalcade of at-times quite brutal violence, Outlaw has a real feeling and message at the heart of it. But you'd be hard pushed to say that the message is well handled, or that it's the main reason for watching the film. Instead, the strengths are some of the performances (Bean is joined by the likes of Bob Hoskins, Lennie James and Dannie Dyer) and the increasingly confident direction from Love. At times it's blistering to watch, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you feel.

Ultimately, though, Outlaw, in spite of its strengths, is a mixed bag, yet one with plenty to recommend it. It's a well-made, diverting film, albeit not one for the squeamish, and while it's got its fair share of flaws, you're unlikely to be disappointed by it. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
A group of disillusioned citizens who have been the victims of crime decide to organise and take the law into their own hands. After returning to England after fighting in Iraq, Bryant (Sean Bean, THE LORD OF THE RINGS – THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING) relocates to London. He finds that the area he has moved to is in the grip of lawlessness. Fellow members of the community who have been subjected to criminal acts approach him and he decides to organise the men into a vigilante gang in order to restore justice to the streets. The gang, which includes Gene Dekker (Danny Dyer, THE FOOTBALL FACTORY) and three other members besides Bryant, are fed information on suitable targets by policeman Walter Lewis (Bob Hoskins, THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY), who has become frustrated at the state of affairs. Director Nick Love (THE BUSINESS) reunites with regular collaborator Danny Dyer to create this tale of urban frustration. Love’s central themes of manliness, rage and camaraderie are again explored here. Whereas previously Love focussed on football hooligans and members of organised crime, this time he attempts to gain greater empathy for his characters by making them the victims of crime. OUTLAW is a violent and brutal film that contains a message about the nature of vigilantism.

DVD Description
There will be no excuses. The guilty will be punished. No one is above Outlaw. A group of people who feel betrayed by their government and let down by their police force form a modern-day posse in order to right what they see as the wrongs of society.

Customer Reviews

Oh Dear Oh Dear.....
....Oh deary me, what a tragedy. This film is as bad as my attempt at poetry. How Sean Bean and Bob Hoskins ended up in this lame, disorganized film I don't know. The basic premise isn't bad, but the execution (pun intended) is pretty poor, lacking -
(1) appropriate psychological profiles and reasons for the characters' involvement in the vigilantism (attempted but oh-so-weak).
(2) credibility (compare with Michael Winner's Death Wish, a simplistic version of the vigilante movie but much more believable and therefore effective).
(3) a strong script and plot lines.
(4) snappy camera work and editing.
It's utter tosh that in the hands of a better director would have been a movie worth watching. As it is, it's a movie best forgotten unless you're a budding film maker, in which case watch it to see how not to make a film.

So So ... Certainly No Death Wish...
Slightly dissapointed - storyline could be better and good actors such as Sean Bean try hard but are up against the weak plot.

It's nowhere near as good as Nick Love's Football Factory or The Business.
The 'Outlaws' of the title actually do very little when push comes to shove & the film isn't as violent as you might expect. The C Word is still in effect though throughout.
Credit to Danny Dyer, at least this performance is less cocky than we've seen. And yet another on screen kicking too!!

It's not a really bad film by any means but it seems to be unsure if it wants to be a Hollywood style action thriller or a gritty, British urban thriller and falls uncomfortably somewhere between.

I'd recommend the excellent Dead Man's Shoes - Now Thats A Real English Revenge Thriller!!!

A Spirit-Crushing Experience
I know this film was on a low budget, but he didn't have to give the local drunk the camera. The convulsive camera work put me into a state of nausea and headache (no, seriously). The plot was awful, the colour dreadful, and Hoskins should know better. Bean becomes a murdering sadist, and the rest get blown away by an entire corrupt police force. By the end I was losing the will to live, and rushed off to get my copy of The Evil That Men Do, to reassure myself that, occasionally, bad people get their just desserts. Only Transporter II was this terrible. Films don't go straight to DVD for no reason.